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BULLETIN or THE 



No. 106 



Contribution trom the Bureau of Animal Industry, A. D. Melvin, Chief. 
September 12, 1914. 

(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 




THE GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND 
ABORTION IN CATTLE. 



By W. L. \\'iLLiAUS,^ Professor of Surga'y, Veterinary Department, Cornell University.' 

INTRODUCTION. 

Early in 1909 the writer had publicly announced the existence in 
a dairy herd in New York of the granular venereal disease, nodular 

j vaginitis, or vaginitis folliculorum chronica contagiosa. Later ob- 
servations showed that it was general, if not universal, among the 
herds of the State. This disease having been held responsible by 
many continental European veterinarians of high authority for the 

I abortion and sterility of cows, it was deemed important that fu'st 

I of all it should be determined how widely and extensively this 
malady exists among the cattle of theUuitedStates. In order to accom- 
plish this, it was decided to make post-mortem observations upon the 
genitalia of cows, heifers, and heifer calves on the lolling floors cf 
abattoirs at some of the principal slaughtering centers. The inspec- 
tors in charge of the Federal meat inspection at these stations, under 

I instructions from the Chief of the Bureau of ^^Luimal Industry, United 
States Department of Agriculture, cooperated most heartily, and a 

[ large volume of most interesting material was furnished in the most 
convenient manner possible for inspection. 

The importance of abortion and sterility in cows is rapidly becom- 
ing more acutely felt by breeders, and is each year playing a more 
serious part in the national economy. By interfering more and more 
with the reproductive powers of cows, these diseases exert an unfavor- 
able influence upon the production of meat, milk, and dairy products, 
decreasing the supply and increasing the cost. 

' In conjunction with the Pathological Di-\ision, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 

NoTH. — This bulletin describes a very common affection of breeding cattle, as to which there is a wide 
diversity of opinion. The paper is the result of extensive study, and is of interest to veterinarians and 
cattle raisers generally. 

43378°— 14 1 Monograph 



2 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUKE. 

The loss to the dairy industry is very great, although difficult to 
estimate. In those cases where fairly good records have been placed 
at our disposal pertaining to herds where it is aimed to raise and 
breed all or nearly all heifer calves, as is the case in pedigreed herds 
of private owners and in the herds of experiment stations, the losses 
from abortion and sterility fluctuate between 5 and 50 per cent per 
amium, with an average of perhaps 15 to 20 per cent. But these 
statistics are deceptive, and not safe for general deductions. These 
herds consist too largely of heifers, in which abortion and sterility 
are most common. 

As nearly as we have been able to estimate, an estimate which is 
admittedly inseciu^e, the annual losses in the dairies of New York 
from abortion and sterility are approximately 10 per cent, which 
probably exceeds $5 per cow for the total number in the State, or 
an approximate economic loss of perhaps $10,000,000 annually. Our 
inquiries regarding losses in other States, in beef as well as in dairy 
herds, indicate that there are no material differences in the ratio of 
losses in the various regions. 

Innumerable reasons have been assigned to account for abortion 
and sterility in cows. Abortion has been regarded as the result of 
blows, goring, kicks, slips, falls, various feeds, waters, drugs, etc., 
and finally, when the abortions are numerous, to contagion. Sterility 
has been attributed also to a great variety of causes — to the character 
of the feed or water, to poverty, and overfatness, and, as with abor- 
tion, when the cases are numerous, to contagion. 

Veterinarians who have investigated abortion in cows in recent 
years have agreed that in a very large percentage of cases it is due 
solely to contagion. The British Royal Commission for the investi- 
gation of this malady believes that more than 90 per cent of the 
abortions among cows in England are due to contagion, while Bang 
in Denmark, Hess and Zschokke in Switzerland, and other veterina- 
rians of Europe hold similar- views. Similar views are also held re- 
garding sterility in cows by Hess of Switzerland, Albrechtscn of 
Denmark, and other leading investigators. 

The basis of diagnosis relied upon in this report for determining 
the presence or abseiice of the gramdar venereal disease was the visi- 
ble presence or absence in the mucosa of the vulva of the granular 
or nodular elevations generally regarded as a result of the uifection. 
The number or size of the nodules visible to the naked eye was not 
taken into account as determining whether the animal was affected 
or not. If the nodides were visibly present the animal was classed 
as affected; if nodules were absent or were not to be detected the 
animal was marked negative or free. 

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^ -C GKANULAR VENEEBAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 
THE GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE. 

DISTRIBUTION AND PREVALENCE. 

Table 1 presents concisely the results of the observations regard- 
ing tlie distribution and prevalence of the granular venereal disease 
throughout the territory covered. 

Table 1. — Prevalence and geographical distributioii of the granular venereal disease in 

cattle. 



Place. 


Re- 
corded. 


Not re- 
corded. 


Nodules or 
granules 
present. 


Nodules or Nodules or 

granules not ' granules 

present. present. 


Nodules or 

granules not 

present. 




Num- 
ber. 
1,578 
552 
599 
193 
32S 


Num- 
ber. 
91 
23 
6 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 
13 
12 

74 


Per 

cent. 

50 

92 

70 


Num- 
ber. 
13 
1 
33 


Per 
cent. 
50 




6 
8 


40 
33 


9 
16 


60 
67 


g 


Kansas City 


30 




8 


60 


72 


23 


28 






















3,250 


128 


74 


61 


48 


39 


99 


68 


46 


32 








Cows under 4 years old. ! Cows 4 years old or over. 


Place. 


Nodules or gran- 
ules present. 


Nodules or gran- 
ules not present. 


Nodules or gran- 
ules present. 


Nodules or gran- 
ules not present. 




Number. 
273 
140 
427 
47 
19 


Per cent. 
90 
95 
98 
90 
100 


Number. 
29 
7 
9 
6 


Per cent. 

10 
5 
2 

10 


Number. 
1,078 
298 
26 
124 
201 


Per cent. 
86 
79 
79 
88 
89 


Number. 
172 
79 

17 
25 


Per cent. 
14 




21 




21 




12 




11 














906 


95 


50 


5 1 1.727 


85 


300 


15 














1 





















Table 1 shows a total of 2,806 cases where nodules or granules in 
the vulvar mucosa were macroscopically visible, as against 444 cases 
where they were not visible. This makes the average visible infec- 
tion in all classes of animals 86 per cent. 

Viewing the malady as one fundamentally venereal in character, 
though readily and abundantly transmitted otherwise, we observe 
the lowest ratio of infection, 61 per cent, in heifer calves slaughtered 
for veal and ranging between 6 weeks and 1 year in age, presum- 
ably because they had not copulated and hence had escaped the 
basic mode of infection. The next lowest ratio of infection, 68 per 
cent, is that of spayed heifers, where agam, when spaying had been 
properly done, copulation was excluded as a factor iii transmission. 
In the next class, comprising entire females from 1 to 4 years of 
age, essentially aU of which had presumably been bred, the number 
of affected advances to 95 per cent, to fall again to 85 per cent in cows 
over 4 years of age. 



4 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

The average percentage of infection in the slaughtered animals, as 
shown in this table, is lower than observed generally in herds in New 
York and other States. The observations here recorded were largely 
upon cattle of the beef breeds, which are not regularly kept in as 
close contact as dairy animals. In Chicago there were, however, a 
considerable number of dairy cows. In dairy animals it is rare to 
find, at least in the State of New York, a heifer calf 3 months old 
without the malady, e.xcept she has been early removed from her dam 
and grown in isolation. The table accordingly teaches that the 
granular venereal disease is essentially imiversal in its distribution 
over the area involved. In our abattoir observations no lot was 
found free, but merely individuals in various lots, which together- 
amounted to 14 per cent. 

Our investigations in herds have revealed no one, however small, 
free from the infection, though we have examined many in New York 
and a number in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Mmnesota, 
Nebraska, Arkansas, and in some European countries. In our 
search for a herd without the infection, it was beheved that in Arkan- 
sas or some other southern State, where, on account of tick fever, 
little interchange of cattle had occurred, and where the herds are 
kept mostly out of doors in a very prunitive manner, it would be 
possible to find cattle free from the malady. Accordingly several 
herds in central Arkansas were visited, but these showed the evi- 
dences of the disease as uniformly, though not as severely, as herds 
in other States. 

DESCRIPTION. 

The granular venereal disease, infectious vaginal catarrh, vaginitis 
verrucosa, etc., was first described by Isepponi in 1SS7, since which 
time it has been recognized and investigated by a great number of 
writers, chiefly m Switzerland at first, then in Austria, Germany, 
France, and other continental European countries. 

When or where the disease began no one knows. It has been stated 
by numerous writers that the disease has spread during recent years 
over a province or community or from one region to another, but 
this recorded spreading of the malady may well be accepted with cau- 
tion. A knowledge of the existence or the recognition of the presence 
of a disease may circulate in such a manner as to become confused 
with the extension of the malady itself, and this is unquestionably 
true in a large measure of the granular venereal disease. We may 
well say that this disease is the most universal infection known in 
any species of domestic animal. 

The granular venereal disease may be defined as a chronic infection 
of the genital tract of cattle, expressing itself clinically in the form of 
granular or nodular elevations in the genital mucosa, chiefly of the 
vulva, less frequently of the vagina. 



GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 5 

SYMPTOMS. 

The essential clinical symptom of the granular venereal disease 
consists of the appearance in the vulvar mucosa, protruding above 
its surface, of nodular, conical, spheroidal, or flat elevations, usually 
1 to 2 millimeters in diameter. They are best observed clinically by 
holding the vidvar lips apart and causmg a strong hght to enter 
the vulva obhquely. The examination may be conducted advanta- 
geously in a well-lighted stable, by having the animal placed with 
her posterior parts presenting toward a window somewhat above 
the level of her back. The examiner then grasps each vulvar Up 
between the thumb and fingers, and, drawing the lips backward and 
outward, exposes the interior of the vulva to vision. The hght, 
falhng obliquely into the vulvar cavity illuminates it well, and, by 
refraction, the nodules are brought clearly into view. 

In order to examine every part, the examiner should shift his 
position again and again, that he may view such area at the proper 
angle. In order to examine satisfactorily the roof of the vulva, the 
eye of the examiner should be on an approximately horizontal line 
with the mucosa. Highly satisfactory examinations may also be 
made in dark stables or at night with the aid of a good reflecting lamp. 

The nodules are also recognizable upon digital palpation, the 
elevations being very evident to the sense of touch. At times digital 
palpation may have an advantage over vision because, as related 
below, even when the nodules are abundant, the mucosa may be 
edematous to such a degree that the nodules are rendered invisible, 
the thickened, edematous mucosa serving to cover them from view, 
though stiU palpable. 

Under the prevailing conditions in American dairy herds, and so 
far as we know in the dairy herds of the world, heifer calves usually 
develop clinical signs of the disease at from 4 to 12 weeks of age, and 
from that time through adult life to old age present a series of interesting 
vacillations of intensity so great that various writers have designated 
these manifestations as acute, subacute, chronic, cured, sound, etc. 

If the "newborn heifer calf is kept in the same stable with dairy 
cows, perhaps in contact for two or tliree days with her dam, is fed 
and handled by persons wlio are in close contact with the cows, and 
placed in a common inclosure with older infected calves, the vulvar 
mucosa usually appears normal, smooth, moist, pale rose-colored 
for a period varyuig from 4 to 12 weeks, or even longer, when 
visual inspection reveals the presence of several or many spheroido- 
conical nodules in the vulvar mucosa 1 to 2 millimeters m diameter. 
They are usually solitary until they become Tery numerous, when 
they tend to become arranged in rows. They are most frequently 
colorless or faiutly yellowish in the center and present the appear- 
ance of small, tense vesicles, but upon close examination they are 



6 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUBE. 

hard to the touch and contain no fluid. Encii-cling the base of each 
nodule there usually appears a pale or bright vascular area, appar- 
ently due to increased vascularity (which a histological examination 
proves correct), thus giving the lesion the appearance of a minute 
vesicle surrounded by a vascular gti-dle. The nodules are scattered 
here and there, frequently along tlie floor of the vulva in the clitoral 
region, but quite as often on tiie sides or tlie roof of the vulva. Except 
for the nodules and the vascular gu-dle about the base of each, the 
surface of the mucosa in the eai'ly stage is smooth, pale rose-colored, 
and normal. There is no swelling, no inflanmiation, no discoloration 
of the vulvar mucosa, and no mucous or muco-purulent discharge. 

Slowly and insidiously the disease spreads to individuals which 
have hitherto escaped, so that the older the heifers in a herd the 
larger the percentage which shows the evidences of the disease. 
The rapidity and uniformity in the spread of the malady rests largely 
upon enviromnent. In the closely housed and much-handled heifer 
calves in dairies usually more than 90 per cent show the disease at 
4 months of age, and before they reach one year the visible infection 
generally reaches 100 per cent, but if by any chance an individual 
escapes infection until breeding age the first service by the bull 
conveys the disease. In heifer calves not kept in close or prolonged 
contact with their dams or wdth older infected heifers, and not much 
if at all handled by persons who are habitually in contact with dis- 
eased animals, the infection spreads much more slowly. Thus we 
have observed in a herd of pedigreed Herefords approximately but 
50 per cent of infection in virgin heifers and heifer calves. After 
birth these calves were allowed to go with their dams for a day or 
two and were then permitted to suck twice daily, but otherwise were 
kept separate from their dams or other older cattle. 

In experimental heifer calves we have kejit individuals up to 6 
months, and even to one year old, without any trace of the uifection. 

The influence of environment upon the spread of the infection in 
heifer calves is further exemplified by Table 1, wherein the 122 veal 
heifers observed showed an average uifection of 61 per cent. The 
percentage of uifection among these calves is markedly below the 
average infection among heifer calves in eastern dairy herds of corre- 
spondmg ages. Western veal calves largely run at liberty in the 
open, exposed to the infection from their dams but not from personal 
handlmg or close crowding in stables. 

The number of the nodules generally uicreases slowly wdth the age 
of the vii'gin heifer from the date of infection up to puberty or 
estrum, when the increased vascularity and functional activity of 
the genital tract apparently favors a more rapid multiplication of 
the nodules and intensifies generally the symptoms of the malady, 
but these in the virgin heifer rarely if ever attain that intensity 
commonly seen after copulation. 



GEAXULAR VEXEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 7 

When the nodules have become quite numerous they tend to 
become arranged m longitudinal, parallel rows corresponding to the 
longitudmal folds of the vulvar mucosa, the nodules being located 
upon the summits of the rugre, emphasized and rendered more dis- 
tinct by the inflammation of the mucosa, which causes it to swell, 
harden, and thicken, and forces it into marked folds. The individual 
nodules change in appearance. They increase little in size and 
projection. The vascular areas about their bases become more 
deeply injected and the vascularity may extend more or less com- 
pletely over tlie surface of the nodules, so that some of them appear 
as bright-red elevations or as petechiiB on the viilvax mucosa. 

Tlie mucosa itself, between the nodules, becomes involved m the 
disease, is injected, red, and swollen. With the advent of definite 
irritation of the vulvar mucosa, a slight muco-purulent vulvar dis- 
charge ensues. It is not at first marked. Many say it is not present, 
or rather that the discharge noted is normal. There is, however, a 
visible discharge which so mats together the vulvar tuft and sur- 
rounding hairs m the heifer calf that in openmg the vulva for inspec- 
tion the examiner must frequently break do'mi the adhesions between 
the surroundmg hairs before the vulvar lips may be parted. Some 
contend that this is normal, but in experiment heifer calves observed 
by us such vuh-ar discharge has not appeared until infection had 
ensued. Herbivorous females of other species do not ordinarily 
present muco-purulent or other vulvar discharges. It would accord- 
ingly appear that mucous secretions normally occurring in the genital 
tube of heifer calves, heifers, and cows should be disposed of by the 
organs in a manner which would prevent their becoming conspicu- 
ous externally. 

Up to the date of pubertj* or estrum the nodular venereal disease 
of heifer calves generally behaves essentially as a dormant malady, 
without material significance for the immediate welfare of the anunal. 
Various observers may and do hold divergent views. Numerous 
cases are viewed by many veterinarians as sound because of the 
mildness of the symptoms, but the nodules are there, and so long as 
these are admitted as the deciding lesion of the malady the heifer 
must be regarded as infected. 

Copulation is the signal for the awakening of the dormant infection, 
which behaves like other venereal disorders in animals and man under 
the stimulus of sexual contact. Within 24 hours after copulation 
the eAadences of sexual irritation are marked. The mucosa becomes 
scarlet, swollen, tender, and in a large proportion of cases there is a 
very notable muco-purulent discharge which adheres to the vulvar 
tuft and soils the under surface of the tail and the skin of the but- 
tocks and the perineiun. 

The vulvar lips frequently become maj-kedly swollen and edema- 
tous. If the vulvar lips be parted, the vulvar mucosa is seen to be 



8 BULLETIN 106, V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTURE. 

covered with masses of stringy, semiopaque mucus, or there may be 
seen small opaque flakes of muco-pus restmg upon the mucosa. 

The nodules now multiply with astonishing rapidity. Their 
arrangement in parallel longitudinal rows becomes well marked, the 
nodules being crowded into close contact with each other upon the 
summits of the swollen, hyjiertrophied mucous rugae. The nodules 
frequently lose their transparency and assume a deep-red color, and 
the malady assumes in every way a more decisive clinical aspect of 
important disease. Even then, however, it is not noticeable in so 
far as the general health of the heifer is concerned. 

The intensity of the symptoms increases for a few days, remains 
static for a time, and then tends to recede slightly, but the betterment 
makes no appreciable approach to the status which had been main- 
tained prior to copulation — a fact which emphasizes strongly its 
essentially venereal character. 

Should the heifer become pregnant at the first service, the irritation 
may abate slightly and slowly for a time, but the nodules remain 
promment and approximately as numerous as ever, and the clinical 
evidences of disease remain essentially static, at one period apparently 
improved, at another worse, until near the time for parturition, when 
the vulvar mucosa becomes more reddened. A marked edema 
(parturient edema) then appeal's, the nodules are covered over and 
are no longer visible. Usually they may still be felt upon careful 
palpation. In many cases of abortion the edema of the vulvar 
mucosa is essentially the same as if parturition had occurred. Should 
parturition or abortion be followed by retained placenta and 
chronic metritis or pyometra, the nodules continue masked by the 
persisting edema so long as serious uterme disease continues. Other- 
wise, with the gradual disappearance of the edema of the mucosa the 
nodules slowly come again into view. 

If the heifer fails to conceive at the first copulation, when the next 
estrual period arrives and copulation occurs, should the sterility be 
refractory, the symptoms tend to increase, so that sterile heifers are 
quite generally among the worst clinical cases of the disease in a herd. 
The symptoms of the disease retain approximately the average 
intensity acquired during the first pregnancy through the second and 
third pregnancies, when the severity of the malady gradually abates. 

Wlien the cow reaches 8 to 9 years of age, and her sixth or seventh 
pregnancy, the decrease in the intensity of the disease generally 
becomes quite marked, the nodules are fewer, less promment, and 
more transparent, the irritation and injection of the vaginal mucosa 
is definitely decreased, and the muco-purulent discharge has largely 
abated. With advancing age, the vulvar mucosa becomes pale 
yellowish, or bluish-yellow, the nodules disappear, and the clinical 
evidences of the disease commonly vanish when the cow has reached 
the age of 12 to 15 years. 



GKAKULAE VENEEEAL DISEASE AND ABOETION IN CATTLE. 



Such is a brief outline of the course of the malady as observed in a 
majority of cases, but the course is vacillating and erratic in individu- 
als and in herds. Copulation always intensifies the symptoms, and 
one can generally identify by clinical exammation nearly all cows re- 
cently bred. 

The use of antiseptics in the vulvo-vaginal tract alters the clinical 
appearances profoundly. Daily washing of the vagina with non- 
irritant warm antiseptic solutions causes the symptoms of the malady 
to decrease rapidly in intensity, and in a few weeks the nodules may 
almost wholly disappear, the mucosa becomes smoother and softer, 
the color changes to a pale rose-red, and it looks as if the continuance 
of the handhng would soon eliminate the disease, but in the end some 
nodules remain, and mth a cessation of handling unaccompanied by 
copulat ion the symptoms remain static. On the other hand, when pow- 
erful antiseptics are introduced into the vagina the mucosa becomes 
iiTitated, swollen, and edematous, and the nodules become veiled. 

Thus the clinical signs of the malady appear msidiously, usually 
when the heifer is but a few weeks old; the disease then pursues a 
comparatively uneventful course up to breeding age, then becomes 
suddenly intensified, and quickly reaches its zenith, where it main- 
tains, with certain vacillations, an approximately horizontal course 
for three or four years, when it begins to abate slowly in intensity, to 
more or less completely disappear clinically with the advent of old age. 

Table 2. — Influence of pregnancy and other conditions upon the visibility of the granular 
venereal disease. 



Placf. 


Total 
animals. 


Total 
preg- 
nant. 


Total 
nonpreg- 
nant. 


Total 
cases 
where 

granules 
were not 

visible. 


Pregn 
Total. 


ant cases 
Percent. 


where gr 
visible. 

Fetus 
under 12 
inches. 


mules we 

Fetus 
12 to 24 
inches. 


re not 

Fetus 24 
inches 
or over. 




Number. 
1,669 
S75 
601 
193 
336 

3,374 


Number. 
965 
366 
123 
127 
155 


Number. 
704 
209 
478 
66 
181 


Number. 
214 
96 
64 
22 
48 


Number. 
106 
59 
4 
14 
13 


11 
16 

3 
11 

8 


Number. 
31 
11 
4 
6 
6 


Number. 
18 
18 

2 
3 


Number. 
67 




30 


Kansas City 



6 




4 






Grand total... 


1,736 


1,638 


444 


196 


11 


68 


41 


97 





Nonpregnant cases where granules were not visible. 


Spayed. 




Place. 


Total. 


Per cent. 


Two 
years 
old or 
under. 


Pyo- 
metra. 


Recent 
parturi- 
tion. 


Veal 
calves. 




Number. 
95 
27 
12 
8 
12 


13 
13 
25 
12 

7 


Number. 
3 






Number. 
12 
8 
2 
4 



Number. 
10 
2 





Number. 

13 
1 

32 




Number. 




9 




16 









23 








164 9 


3 


26 


12 


46 


48 











10 BULLETIN 106, XJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTUEE. 

A study of Table 2 illustrates some of the influences which modify 
the visual signs of the malady. Among the pregnant animals in 
which the granules were not apparent macroscopically, the fetus 
exceeded 24 inches in length in about 50 per cent of the cases, while in 
the earUer stages of pregnancy the granules were more generally 
present. Among nonpregnant females the influence of pyometra and 
recent parturition is very marked. 

Table 1 shows that many young heifers sold as veals escape the 
infection, while spayed heifers, usually free upon the range, quite 
generally escape. But the tables tell only a part. It was a very 
notable phenomenon that the probabihty of both the presence and 
intensity of the disease rested vary largely upon the question of 
copulation. 

The spaying of range heifers is not generally well done. The opera- 
tion is very carelessly and hastily performed, usually by the flank 
method, the operator tkrusting his hand through the woimd, grasping 
the ovaries and stripping them from the broad ligament between the 
thumb and fingers. The result is that 50 to 60 per cent of them are 
only partly spayed, some ovarian tissues are left wMch develop 
ovisacs and cysts, the heifers come m estrum or are nymphomaniac, and 
copulate freely mth range bulls. The lesions of the granular venereal 
disease are uniformly seen in such imperfectly spayed animals, and 
show considerable intensity. In the perfectly spayed heifers the 
vulvar mucosa is generally normal, smooth, and pale rose-red, with 
but few if any visible nodules. 

Another striking illustration of the influence of coitus upon the 
intensity of the disease was observed in a lot of 270 two-year-old 
range Hereford heifers which had evidently been kept away from the 
bull, except in the case of one individual which had, perhaps acci- 
dentally, become pregnant. In the 269 nonpregnant animals the 
disease was quite uniformly present, but only a few nodules were 
seen in each individual. Careful inspection was requu-ed lest they 
be passed over. The vulvar mucosa of the one pregnant heifer, 
however, bore more of the granules than the other 269 collectively. 
The entire mucosa was swollen and red, and dense masses of granules 
crowded thickly upon each other. 

Throughout its long course the intensity of the infection rises and 
falls, sometimes in obedience to known causes, as copulation, some- 
times in a manner not yet understood. During the period at which 
the disease is at its zenith few animals fail to show the clinical 
evidences of its presence, as is shown by Table 1, according to which 
the evidences of the disease were apparent in 95 per cent of cases. 
This is no higher than regularly observed at this age in dairy herds. 



GKANULAK VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABOKTION IN CATTLE. 11 



HISTOLOGY. 



Tho histology of the disease has not been extensively studied. 
Isepponi spealcs of the nodular elevations as granuloma; Ostertag 
views them as swellings of the lymph follicles normally present in 
tho vulvar mucosa, and ^Martens also regards them as swellings or 
hypertrophy of normal papillary bodies. 

Thoms has investigated the histology of the malady most fully. 
As a basis for his study of the normal vulvar mucosa he selected a 
cow about 7 years old and a calf 10 weeks old. The normality of 
the mucosa of these two animals may well be questioned. While in 
Table 1 there has been recorded a total of 300 cows over 4 years 
old in which nodules were not recognized, I would be wholly unwilling 
to select one of these as sound. The examination was merely nega- 
tive as to their presence, not positive as to their absence. Thoms 
concludes that animals of any age may be infected, that with an 
exudate bearing the cUplococci and short streptococci the disease 
may be induced experimentally in 16 hours by inoculation, that in 
four or live days nodules appear which consist mostly of the hyper- 
trophy of the existing papillie in the vulvar mucosa, but are largely 
the result of the formation of entirely new follicles by the accumula- 
tion of round cells in clumps, and that after healing the follicles 
atrophy gradually, but fail to return completely to their former size. 
Hence he concludes recovery is not wholly dependent upon the 
resiunption by the follicles of their normal size. 

BACTERIOLOGY. 

The bacteriology of the granular venereal disease has been but 
little studied, and the conclusions reached may well be modified by 
future investigations. Ostertag concludes that the disease is due to 
a diplococcus or short streptococcus, which he recognized in the 
muco-pm'ulent exudate in the vagina and vulva, and in one case in 
the uterus. He introduced the organism into the vagina of cows, 
sheep, goats, swine, and horses, causing in cows a chronic purulent 
vaginal catarrh, which agreed perfectly in its symptoms and course 
with catarrhal vaginitis, and from the diseased exudates of these 
animals pure cultures of the streptococcus were recovered. In 
sheep, goats, swine, horses, guinea pigs, and rabbits the results were 
negative. 

In investigating the granular venereal disease we need as a basis 
an animal with miquestionably sound genital mucosa. This Oster- 
tag believes he has secured. Details of the basis upon which he 
declares them sound are wanting. So with the transmission experi- 
ments of Ostertag. Were the animals to which he believed he 
transmitted the affection actually and wholly free from the disease 



12 BULLETIN 106, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTTJEE. 

at the beginning of his experiments ? There is every reason to 
believe that a calf in passing through the infected birth canal of 
its dam may become infected at the time of birth, or if not then it 
surely often becomes infected within a few days when kept in the 
same stall or stable or fed and handled by persons who come in 
contact with the diseased mother. If a new-born calf be removed 
from its dam at once and kept in strict isolation, I find that it will 
possibly escape uifection for a time, but not probably, and that it 
will be several weeks before the macroscopic lesions appear. 

Fxu-ther and more serious doubt is th^o^vn upon the recorded 
experiments of Ostertag in the symptoms and course of the experi- 
mental granular venereal disease from the fact that the recorded 
symptoms are in conflict with the present writer's clinical experience 
with the beginnings of the disease. This has been gained by observing 
hundreds of heifer calves from 2 to 6 months old affected with 
the disease, as well as a number of experimental calves under im- 
mediate observation, which must necessarily have evidenced the 
disease over and over again in its incipiency. 

Ostertag says: 

The first symptoma of infectious catarrh are swelling of the ^-ulva, redness, swelling 
and sensitiveness of the vaginal mucosa, and a muco-purulent deposit upon the 
vaginal mucosa . 

In the earher stages of the malady, as we have observed it, there 
are present none of the symptoms emphasized by Ostertag. On the 
contrary, the disease comes on insidiously, and the first sign of 
the malady is the appearance of a few nodules in the vulvar mucosa, 
sharply defined above the stirrounding epitheliiun, as pale yellow 
or colorless transparent elevations having a vascular girdle about 
their bases. Some would call these heifer calves sound, but if 
two or three typical nodules do not indicate granular venereal 
disease it would be dilEcult to understand by what Une of reasoning 
200 or 300 nodules can assure us of the existence of the malady. 

In other words, Ostertag describes, not the beginning of the disease, 
but an "explosion" of the existing malady under profound irritation. 
It is not strange that virulent streptococci induced the symptoms 
he describes, nor that he was able to recover piu-o cultures of the micro- 
organism from his experimental animals, but he has failed to repro- 
duce the insidious, exceedingly mild early stages of the disease, which 
anyone who cares to do so may watch in heifer calves in any dairy. 
Neither need anyone fail to find cases, especially in recently bred 
heifers or young cows, in which all the symptoms described by 
Ostertag are present in their most impressive form, but that is not 
the beginning or end of the malady; it is its zenith. In a muco- 
purulent vaginal discharge streptococci are usually present, and, 
if sufficiently virulent cultures are introduced into the vagina of an 



GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 13 

animal of the same species from which the cultm-e was procm-ed 
there need be little surprise if it cause irritation. Ostertag states 
that the vaginal discharge comes from the formation of nodules 
and that the discharge is at first purulent or muco-purulent. 

The granular venereal disease does not behave clinically like a 
malady dependent upon streptococci or other pyogenic organisms. 
It is not fimdamentaUy pyogenic. The investigations of Thoms and 
others have failed to show the formation of papules, ulcers, or necro- 
sis of tissues. The granules or nodules do not suppurate. When the 
granules become highly nimierous, the vulvo-vagLnal mucosa is 
swollen and rough, the rugse overlap and strike against eax^h other, the 
epithelium at the apices of the granules becomes abraded by com- 
pression and attrition, and, as Thoms relates, the result is a partial 
denudation of the epithelium, naturally leading to streptococcic 
infection and catarrh. 

The granules behave unlike the product of streptococcic infection 
in their appearance and disappearance. They arise too suddenly 
and with too slight signs of irritation. In the heifer calf they appear 
as transparent or translucent granules or nodules, the body of 
the granule showing httle or no color, while the base has a yellowish 
or red girdle or areola. They are not observed to grow. One day 
they are unseen, the next they are full size. In their mode of dis- 
appearance they behave very similarly. Their disappearance is 
chiefly noted numerically and not by volume. 

PROGNOSIS. 

If we omit from our consideration such alleged consequences 
of the nodular venereal disease as abortion, retained placenta, 
cystic degeneration of the ovaries, pyometra, and other serious 
affections of the genital organs, the prognosis as to the life of the 
patient is excellent, and the prospect for the amelioration and 
repression of the malady is highly favorable. But the outlook for 
recovery, in the present state of our knowledge, is very poor, if not 
hopeless. There is necessarily quite as wide variation in the prog- 
nosis as there is concerning the essential symptoms and diagnosis. 
If one holds, as many do, that the disease is present only when the 
nodiiles are very numerous (each party having his own conception 
of that definition) and there is a marked muco-purulent vaginal 
discharge (the degree of which each must define for himseK) and these 
conditions shall be accompanied by sterility and abortion, the 
prognosis may be good. With such a conception, however, there 
can never be a clear line of demarcation between sound and diseased. 
Different observers can not hope to agree upon the number of the 
nodules which warrant a diagnosis of infection — whether there 
need be present 1,000 or 10 nodides. Neither can there be agreement 



14 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

as to what constitutes muco-purulent vaginal discharge, if the 
amount is to decide the question. Unlike other females among our 
domestic animals, there is a well-nigh universal vulvar discharge 
of mucus or muco-pus from cattle, which varies quite as widely 
as the number of nodules present. There is a somewhat close 
harmony between the number of nodides present and the amount 
of vaginal discharge. 

If it is held that the presence of nodules in the vulvar mucosa, 
be they few or many and accompanied by little or much irritation 
or discharge, indicates the granular venereal disease, the prognosis 
as to complete cure of the disease is hopeless in the present state 
of our knowledge. It attacks the heifer and calf ordinarily when 
a few weeks old, and, except at times near to parturition or abortion 
or under the influence of serious disease of the uterus (pyometra, etc.), 
the disease is still clinically recognizable in most aged cows. No more 
typically chronic malady is known, so that the terms acute, sub- 
cute, and chronic are mere expressions of the vacillations in intensity 
dependent upon a great variety of causes. 

From another standpoint we maj' regard the prognosis with some 
favor. Viewing it as the possible cause of abortion and sterility, 
we know that during its zenith, when the animal is from 2 to 5 years 
of age, the economic losses from these causes are greatest, and that 
after this period has passed the intensity of the disease abates, and 
with it the losses from abortion and sterility dechne. So also we 
may regard as favorable the fact that we may repress the disease in 
its intensity and at the same time may decrease the losses from 
abortion and sterility. 

Ostertag relates that one 6-year-old cow recovered spontaneously 
in 8 weeks, but he does not define what he means by recovery. 
Thorns holds that after recovery from the disease the foUicles 
slowly decrease in size, but only in small degree, and then remain, 
and emphasizes his opinion that the cure of the disease is not neces- 
sarily followed b}^ a disappearance of the nodules. Hess (in a personal 
communication) holds that when the redness and swelling of the 
vagina and the muco-purulent discharge therefrom have abated the 
disease is cured; that is, it is no longer present, steriUty fails, abortion 
does not occur. 

When necrotic or other tissues become encapsided, when inorganic 
salts are deposited in the tissues, when dense sclerotic tissues have 
formed as a result of disease, and in many other cases, it is readily 
imderstood that the effects of the disease may persist indefinitely 
after the cessation of the malady. In the granular venereal disease 
investigators agree that the nodides consist essentially of masses 
of what appear to be roimd or lymph ceUs, cells of a very primitive 



GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 15 

character, vnth rarely a trace of skeletal stroma or of blood vessels 
among them. Such stnictures, it would seem, would be rapidly 
and completely dissipated by physiologically active tissues as soon 
as the irritant which has caused them had abated. This view is fully 
borne out cHnically. Under varyhig conditions the nimibers of 
nodules decrease rapidly. If the vagma is merely kept well douched 
wnth warm water and a mild antiseptic, a large percentage of the 
nodules disappear. If the nodules constitute the basic clinical 
phenomenon of the malady, it is difficult, considemig their structure, 
to understand why, if the disease disappears, the basic symptom of it 
should not promptly follow 

It is upon the partial disappearance of the nodules, muco-purulent 
vulvar discharge, etc., that the allegations of cure appear generally 
to be based. In other cases, however, the allegation of cure rests upon 
the swelling and edema caused in the vulvar mucosa by the applica- 
tion of an alleged remedy, by which the nodules are hidden. It is 
analogous to certain cures for exostoses on the legs of horses, wherein 
the neighboring soft tissues become so swollen and edematous from 
the application of the remedy that the exostosis is no longer apparent. 

Referring to Table 1, in the group of cows 4 years old and over 
it may be assumed with safety that these animals had had an oppor- 
timity to recover spontaiieously during a period of probably six 
years on an average, with the result that 85 per cent still showed 
the evidences of the disease. If we turn to Table 2, it will be found 
that, of the 13 per cent marked negative, nearly 40 per cent may have 
been masked by advanced pregnancy, recent parturition, or pyometra. 
Considering that other diseases and conditions at times cause the 
symptoms to be temporarily masked, it is apparent that this group 
of annuals had made no marked advancement toward spontaneous 
recovery. 

Although continental European veterinary periodicals are well 
fiLIed mth contributions by leading veterinarians recoimting the cure 
of the disease by various remedies, in many cases in the phenomenal 
time of 10 to 20 days, we have faitlifidly applied many of these over 
prolonged periods and have as yet not observed a single cure, 
evidently, agam, because of a variation in the definition of a cure. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE. 

The importance of the granular venereal disease has been variously 
estimated by different investigators. As shown by Table 1, the dis- 
ease is so universal that its presence may be made to afford an ex- 
planation for a great variety of ailments. When there is added to 
this the fact stated above of the wide divergence of opinion as to the 
clinical diagnosis of the disease, it naturally follows that different 



16 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICtTLTUEE. 

investigators assert, while others deny, that it causes any, few, or 
many losses, due to an extensive list of comphcations. 

Some there are who vehemently assert that no such disease exists 
and hence can not cause losses. They beMeve the granules or nodules 
to be normal structures, else, they say, they would not be so universal. 
Such granules or nodules, however, are not ordinarily observed in the 
vulvar mucosa of other animal species. They do not appear in the 
vulvse of new-born heifer calves, and may not appear for months if 
the calf is kept in isolation. After coition they multiply by leaps and 
bounds. 

Some urge that the disease can be of no material importance because 
it is so common and so few animals appear to suffer unfavorable con- 
sequences. The same argument has been applied to tuberculosis of 
cattle and glanders of horses. We have come now to know that a 
very large percentage of each of these diseases goes unseen by the 
clinician and are detected only by biologic search. We have yet 
better analogies iipon which tentative conclusions ma}'^ be based. 
We have pointed out the fact that the disease is largely venereal in char- 
acter. Though quite generally transmitted by other means, as is to 
some extent the case with all venereal affections, yet its intense 
arousal is brought about chiefiy if not solely by coition. 

In man and in each species of domestic animal there is one or more 
venereal disease, and each and every one is of material consequence. 
In woman, sj^Dhihs and gonoiThea are responsible for much abortion, 
sterility, and chronic diseases of the ovaries, oviducts, and other 
organs. In dourine in mares, aside from the high mortaUty, abor- 
tion or steriHty is practically constant and no viable foals are born. 
There appears no good reason for assuming that the granular venereal 
disease of cows should form any marked exception to the general rule 
that a chronic venereal infection of tlie genital tract is a serious peril, 
especially from the standpoint of reproduction in the affected animals. 

ABORTION. 

Among the various comphcations alleged to accompany the granu- 
lar venereal disease, stoutl}^ asserted by some and as vigorously de- 
nied by others, is abortion. Here two views as yet unreconciled 
clash — that of Bang and his supporters that abortion is due to the 
abortion bacillus on the one hand, and that of Zschokke, Hess, and 
others that it is largely due to the gi-anular venereal disease. At the 
outset it is well to bear in mind that the gi-anular venereal disease and 
abortion are essentially universal. We hear now and then of the so- 
called breaking out of the granular venereal disease or of abortion 
in a herd, by which is ordinarily meant, not that the breaking out is 
the beginning of either malady, but simpJy that it has become so 



GKANULAK VENEKEAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 17 

severe that it has attracted the attention of owners or veterinarians. 
If abortion is not playing havoc in a herd, the granular venereal 
disease may not be seen. No effort is made to see it. As soon as a 
large proportion of the cows begin to abort and an explanation is de- 
sired, search may be made for the granular venereal disease, and at 
once it is declared to have broken out, but all the time it was there. 
So vnth. abortion itself. In small herds an actually visible abortion 
may not occi:r for years, or occur so rarely that the owner forgets the 
fact and he is ready to state that his herd has long been abortion-free. 
In large herds, however, of 50 to 100 cows and over abortion is recog- 
nized as being essentially universal. Of couree its contagiousness is 
often denied and a plausible explanation for the accident is given. 
The heifer (nearly always a heifer) has drunk too much cold water, 
has slipped and fallen, has been gored or kicked, crowded in a door, 
or suffered from some error in feeding, or from other causes too 
numerous to mention and to which all cows are inevitably subjected. 

Contagious abortion is too often confounded with the death and 
expulsion of the immature fetus. It is not at all essential that a 
pregnant cow affected with contagious abortion must abort or that a 
fetus affected with the malady shall die. It is no proof that the in- 
fection or disease of contagious abortion is absent from a herd when 
no dead fetuses are expelled, and it is far from proof that the con- 
tagion is absent when but one or two animals in a dairy of 25 to 40 
cows abort in a given year. We would better define contagious 
abortion of cattle as a chronic infection of the genital tract which 
may imperil the health or life of the fetus. The affection has been 
all too scantily investigated to permit of a conclusion as to what per- 
centage of pregnant cows having in their genital tracts the organism 
of contagious abortion actually abort. It is -with certainty known 
that many of them do not abort. It is not at ail rare to see cows giving 
birth to living, apparently healthy calves at full term, though atthe 
commencement of labor thej^ expel large volumes of typical abortion 
exudate. A yet more familiar example is premature births, essen- 
tially all of which may be referred to the infection of contagious 
abortion. The infection may reside in any part of the genital tract, 
so far as now known, but can affect the fetus unfavorably only when 
within the uterine cavity. Even within this cavity it does not neces- 
sarily destroy the hfe of the fetus or even cause premature birth, but 
the birth may be apparently normal and the calf well developed and 
vigorous. 

Our entire view of the differentiation between accidental and con- 
tagious abortion needs revision. The belief in frequent accidental 
abortion in the cow is so deep-rooted in the mmds of veterinarians 
and cattle breeders that the question is one difficult of approach. 
43378°— 14 3 



18 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

If wc study the gravid uterus of the cow (or other ruminaut) 
critically, the provisions agamst accidental injury to the fetus im- 
presses the observer as one of the most perfect physiologic arrange- 
ments to be found in animal life. The fetus of the ruminant is elab- 
orately protected dm-ing intrauterine life. The pregnant uterus hes 
on a gently inclmed plane, the abdommal floor, partly suspended 
by the vagina and broad Ugaments. The fetus gets its nutrient 
supply, not ordinarily from a diffuse placenta as in the mare, or 
zonular placenta as in carnivora, where violence may cause placen- 
tal detachment and entail fetal death, but instead proctu"es its food 
supply through 100 or more cotyledons, complex multiple placentae, 
each usually having a distmct neck, thus leaving an empty space 
between the uterus and chorion, permitting a to-and-fro movement 
between the uterine walls and fetal sac in every direction. The 
fetal secmity is further insured by its floating free within one and 
partly within a second sac of fluid. 

As indicated by Table 2, the uteri of over 1,700 pregnant cows 
and heifera were mspected. Probably very few of them had been 
shipped less than 100 miles by railroad, many of them huncheds 
of miles. They had been driven some distance to a railway station, 
huddled into shipping pens, forced into cars, crowded and jammed, 
and not rarelj^ got down and were trampled. At every tm'n oppor- 
tunity was offered for crowding and jamming. Finally they were 
goaded into the killing pens, felled with a hammer, and tumbled out 
on the floor. Certainly they had been subjected to the dangers 
of mechanical and fright abortion. Yet, in all these cases, no trace 
of injury to the fetus, fetal membranes, or uterus which might 
possibly have caused abortion had the animal been allowed to live 
were seen. While such evidence does not prove the impossibility 
of accidental abortion in cows, it does mdicate that it is not, after 
all, very readily induced. 

In further search for lesions of accidental abortion in stock-yard 
cows, two animals were purchased which had aborted in the car or 
yards and another had expelled a live fetus prematurely. These were 
killed within a few hoiu^ after the occurrence. In none of the three 
was there a trace of mechanical injmy, but lesions were found which 
are described elsewhere, showing conclusively that the abortion was 
due, not to mechanical injmy, fright, or other accidental causes, 
biit to an infection within the uterine cavity, the evidences of which 
could not have accumulated m a day or a week. 

All other post-mortem examinations upon recently aborted cows, 
so far as found recorded, have uniformly shown, beyond question, 
that infection, not accident, was the essential cause of the death and 
expulsion of the fetus. No case of alleged accidental abortion in 



GRANULAR \T;NEKEAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 19 

cattle, so far as we can find, has ever been verified by post-mortem 
examination. 

Generally it may be said that the evidence in relation to the im- 
portance of the nodular venereal disease is purely clinical and cir- 
cumstantial, while that of the abortion bacillus is chiefly from the 
laboratory. If the Bacillus ahortus is moculatcd into a pregnant 
heifer in order to test its virulence, it is injected into one afTected 
with the gi-anular venereal disease. If the granular venereal disease 
is capable of inducing abortion, and abortion follows the inocula- 
tion with the abortion bacillus, there is no conclusive proof which of 
the two infections, if they be distmct, caused the disaster. It has 
not been shown that the Bacillus ahortus of Bang is or is not related 
to the granular venereal disease. 

There are many defects m the evidence submitted m favor of each 
hypothesis. If we examine first the Bang theory, we note among 
other defective points iii the evidence: 

1. Experimental inoculations have been without adequate con- 
trol. No adequate evidence has been submitted to show that, 
taken an equal niunber of pregnant cows or heifers of like age and 
other conditions, and, instead of inoculating them with the Bacillus 
ahortus, they are given in the same manner (intravenously, hyjjo- 
dermically, etc.) an equal amount of an innocuous substance, such 
as salt solution, a similar precentage of the animals would not abort. 

2. The alleged period of incubation required to induce abortion 
varies inconsistently, according to species. By referring to Table 3, 
it will be observed that in cows the average time required to induce 
experimental abortion in the 26 cases recorded was 131 days; in ewes 
it reqxiired 6 to 83 days to induce abortion or infection ; in the guinea 
pig abortion followed inoculation after an average of 10 days. In 
other words, the evidence submitted suggests that no matter how brief 
the normal duration of pregnancy, an infection which usually requires 
an average of 131 days, or a trifle less than one-haK the span of 
pregnancy in the cow, its natural host, so hastens its energies as to 
induce abortion in less than half the span of pregnancy in other 
species, no matter how brief that span may be. Indeed, the records 
of experimental infectious abortion in the guinea pig indicate that 
abortion follows in one-sixth the span of pregnancy after inoculation. 
We are accordingly offered the phenomenon of an infectious disease, 
the duration of the incubation of which varies widely according to 
animal species, though each species may be equaUy susceptible. 



20 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

Table 3. — Average periods of incubation of abortion. 



Species, source of data, etc. 


Number of 
animals. 


Average 
period of 
pregnancy 
when inocu- 
lated. 


Average 

time of 

termination 

of pregnancy. 


Average in- 
terval be- 
tween inocu- 
lation and 
termination 
of pregnancy. 


Coirs. 
British Royal Commission: 


7 
1 

3 


Days. 

71 
103 

37 


Days. 

189 
254 

172 


Pny.v. 




151 


Killed when abortion was apparently threat- 










11 

1 
4 

1 


65 
69 

141 

1 

45 
113 
101 


190 
174 

199 

199 

128 
167 
107 




Killed without symptoms of abortion 

New York State Veterinary College: 


108 
58 


Prof. B. Bang citing Poiilsen: 


199 


Ewes. 
British Koyal Commission: 


83 


Lambing (3) or dying at full terra from torsion of 


54 


Killed without aborting before full term and 


6 








Guinea pigs. 

British Royal Commission: 

Aborted and abortion bacilli recovered 

Aborted, but abortion bacilli not recovered... 


1 

4 


Undet. 
Undet. 


Undet. 
Undet. 


19 
10 




5 
2 


Undet. 
34 


Undet. 
53 


12 


British Royal Commission: 

Aborting, but no abortion bacilli recovered . . . 


20 



3. The data upon tho duration of incubation in the cow vary in 
such a manlier as to invite grave doubts as to the reasonableness of 
the conchision that the artificially introduced abortion bacillus caused 
the abortion. Keferruig agam to Table 3, we find that the constancy 
of the average date of pregnancy at which the cows of various experi- 
menters aborted is remarkable — 5 by Dr. Moore at the New York 
State Veterinaiy College, averaging the one himdredand ninety-ninth 
day; 11 by the British Royal Commission, averaging the one hundred 
and ninetieth day; 7 by Poulsen, cited by Bang, the one himdred and 
ninety-ninth day; and 3 by Bang the two hundred and fourth day. 

In the column recording the period of incubation the same lots 
show 126, 58, 199, and 114 days, respectively, which gives a very 
wide and inexphcable variation until a comparative study is made of 
the date of inoculation. It then appears that the period of pregnancy 
at which abortion occurred suggests that the duration of incubation 
is dependent upon the date of inoculation. In other words, inoculate 
pregnant cows at any date one likes, the average date of pregnancy 
at which abortion occurs remains the same. We might say that, 
according to recorded data, tho inoculation at any time of a pregnant 



GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 21 

COW with, abortion bacilli wiU tend to cause abortion about the two 
hundredth day of pregnancy, the organism tempering its rapidity of 
action according to the exigencies of the case. 

If in Table 3 we let X equal the number of days elapsing after 
impregnation until inoculation is made and Y equal the number of 
days elapsing between inoculation and abortion, then A'' + Y = about 
200 days, although the values of A' and Y may each vary inversely 
from 1 to 200. 

4. The alleged cases of experimental abortion recorded by the 
different investigators present very grave questions in relation to the 
avenue or avenues of uifection. These we discuss later in a separate 
chapter. 

There is, it is true, much laboratory evidence tending to show that 
the introduction of the bacillus abortus intravenously, hypodermi- 
caUy, per vaginam or orem, may lead to the invasion of the utero- 
chorionic cavity and cause the death and expulsion of the fetus, but 
as yet no rehable means have been devised for determining that the 
same organisms did not exist already within the utero-chorionic space. 
Apparently a very high percentage of the experimental heifers and 
cows inoculated have aborted, but this is merely comparative, not 
positive. 

In the experiments of the British Royal Commission, of 5 heifers 
inoculated subcutem, 1 aborted; of 9 heifers inoculated intrajugidarly, 
4 aborted; of 5 heifers inoculated per orem, 1 aborted; of 9 heifers 
inoculated per vaginam, 1 aborted; making a total of 28 heifers 
inoculated, of which 7, or 25 per cent, aborted. 

This rate of abortion does not greatly exceed the prevaOing rate of 
abortions in first pregnancies. However, the commission determined, 
by autopsy or otherwise, that 11 additional heifers were infected and 
might have aborted, which makes a total of 18, or 64 per cent, of 
their experimental heifers that were infected. It is not at all rare 
for more than 64 per cent of heifers to abort from natural infection. 

In each case we have found recorded of abortion, in cattle in which 
an early autopsy has been performed, there has been found in the 
utero-chorionic space a pecuHar exudate which has not been recorded 
as occurring in other organs or in the uterus of other animals than the 
cow, and in which the abortion bacUh are usually, if not always, 
found. 

As with the abortion bacillus, so with the granular venereal disease; 
there are no adequate control observations. Under the conditions 
shown in Tables 1 and 2, no herds free from the granular venereal 
disease can be found, and hence we can not say that, without that 
malady, contagious abortion could or could not exist. 

It is a notable chnical fact, however, that those herds abort most 
in which the granular venereal disease is most intense. When a large 



22 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 

percentage of the cows and heifers have the disease of a severe type — 
when the nodules are very numerous, the vulvar mucosa deeply 
injected, red, inflamed and bleeding upon slight provocation, when 
there is an abundant muco-purulent vulvar discharge, when the 
vulvar lips are swollen and the malady takes on what some term the 
acute type — abortion is usually common and serious. When the 
ilisease is mild, or as some say chronic, or others cured, leaving 
behind, however, some clearly recognizable nodules, abortion occurs 
rarely. 

A still more significant clinical evidence that the granular venereal 
disease has an important relation to abortion is that abortion occurs 
at that age of the animal when the granular venereal disease is most 
intense; that is, in cows not over 4 years old. Usually it is during 
the first or second pregnancy that cattle abort when the granular 
venereal disease is at its zenith. 

The granular venereal disease is also claimed to be the essential 
cause of sterility in cows. A great variety of diseases may bring 
about sterility, as, for example, tuberculosis of the genital organs, but 
they constitute a very small minority of cases. The vast majority of 
cases of sterility are due, according to our observations, to one 
widespread infection, inseparable from contagious abortion. In the 
experience of the writer, fully 98 per cent of the sterility of cattle 
must be regarded as identical in etiology with abortion. In one case 
the infection prevents conception; in another it attacks tlie embryo 
or fetus to cause its death and expulsion, or its expulsion from the 
uterus in an immature though hving state (premature birth), or its 
birth in a more or less normal state, at fuU term, the infection existing 
in the uterus causing metritis with or without retained placenta. 

Sterility and contagious abortion are in effect comparative terms, 
without any clear Hne of demarcation between the two phenomena. 

THE GKAVID UTERUS OF THE COW. 

The uterus is a branched, hollow organ, divided into a cervix, a 
body, and two horns. 

The cervix uteri is of great interest in the consideration of some of 
the phenomena of contagious abortion, as well as of sterihty. In the 
nonpregnant animal it is 3 to 6 inches long and 1 to 3 inches or more 
in diameter. Its walls are thick, dense, and resistant. The cervical 
canal is a narrow, tortuous channel, affording an avenue of communi- 
cation between the vaginal and uterine cavities. In the healthy non- 
pregnant cow, when not in estrum, the mucosa of the cervical canal 
is elaborately folded longitudinally. The folds are in immediate 
contact at every point, completely occupying the space of the channel, 
the contact of the mucous folds being rendered close and firm by 



GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 23 

means of the powerful contraction of the thick muscular waUs of the 
cervix. 

Invasion of the uterine cavity through the cervical canal from the 
vagina is further guarded by a series of transverse muco-muscular 
projections directed sharply toward the vagina. These barriers are 
one-half to one inch in length and act as encircling valves directed 
toward the vagina in a manner to prevent ingress from the vagina by 
deflecting any invader from the cervical canal into the cul-dc-sac of 
the valves, while permitting a more free egress from the uterine 
cavity. 

The anatomical arrangement of the walls of the cervical canal 
results in the channel being firmly closed in the normal nonpregnant 
cow which has not recently calved and is not in estrum. The closure 
is so firm, the canal so tortuous, and the valvular barriers are so 
effective that it is impracticable to insert a man's finger or even a 
sound from the vagina into the uterus. This leads to the popular 
delusion that sterility is caused by closure of the mouth of the womb — 
a wholly normal state. In our abattoir observations we incised the 
cervix uteri of over 1,500 nonpregnant cows and heifers and found 
in one only a closure of the cervical canal other than the normal 
approximation related above. 

During estrum the cervical walls relax, the cervical canal dilates, 
and it is frequently possible to introduce a finger or sound into the 
uterine cavity. In severe cases of sterility accompanied by nympho- 
mania the cervical canal is frequently dilated. 

When pregnancy occurs preparations are promptly begun and 
early completed to hermetically seal the uterus. A tough transparent 
gelatinoid substance — the uterine seal — forms in the cervical canal. 
It extends from the external to the internal os; pushes between the 
longitudinal mucous folds, pushing them apart while filling com- 
pletely the spaces between them, fixing each fold in a definite position 
and binding it on either side to the adjacent folds; pushes the sum- 
mits of the mucous ridges apart in the center of the canal, which it 
completely fills; invades and fills the spaces behind the transverse 
valvular folds; and binds and closes in a most intimate manner the 
entire cervical canal. The uterine seal projects beyond the internal 
OS into the uterine cavity as a hemispherical elevation and posteriorly 
projects in a similar manner into the vagina, where it may be recog- 
nized by digital palpation as an elastic, adhesive mass adhering to 
the finger tip as it is withdrawn, constituting almost always a valid 
proof of pregnancy. It begins very early after impregnation, and is 
more prompt in heifers than in cows. It is generally complete in the 
heifer when the embryo is one-fourth of an inch long and in the cow 
when the embryo has reached a length of one-half to one inch, though 



24 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AORICULTUEE. 

it is rarely delayed to a somewhat later period. After completion in 
its formation, that is, after its complete investment of the parts, it 
continues to grow in volume throughout pregnancy, the rounded 
projections at the internal os reaching in adult cows a diameter of 
2 inches. 

The uterine seal of the cow is a highly elaborate and interesting 
production apparently having as its ofBce the simple function of a 
seal by which the uterine cavity with its contained young is hermeti- 
cally sealed and invasion from the vagina excluded. In the more 
than 1 ,700 pregnant cows and heifers examined on the killing floor 
the apparent efficiency of the uterine seal was well designed to excite 
admiration. The vagina might show marked eviilences of long- 
standing infection, but the vaginal end of the uterine seal was firm, 
translucent, unstained, and to all appearances undisturbed by the 
infection. At its uterine end it was frequently stained by the hemor- 
rhages generally present at this point and at times its surface partly 
liquefied. When the exudate of abortion was present at the in- 
ternal 03 there was a more marked tendency to liquefaction of the 
uterine end of the seal, but in each case where the fetus was still intact 
and the membranes sound the body of the uterine seal revealed no 
changes whatev.er. It appeared as resistant to bacterial invasion as a 
living tissue; indeed it seemed more resistant than the neighboring 
mucosa. 

When the fetus was dead and decomposing the uterine seal was 
dissolved and had partially or wholly disappeared. 

The uterine seal is of especial significance in considering the avenue 
of infection and date of invasion in contagious abortion. 

During estrum the uterine cavity contains a considerable quantity 
of clear mucus. At or near the close of estrum, succeeding closely 
upon ovulation, in case impregnation fails to occur menstruation sets 
in. The mucosa then becomes injected, highly vascular, and swollen. 
The cotyledonal elevations of the mucosa enlarge, and from these a 
weU-marked hemorrhage of bright-red blood occurs which later 
escapes per vulvam (menstruation). Should impregnation ensue, 
menstruation ordinarily fails, and the utei'us continues large, soft, 
and smooth. The fertilized egg soon throws out its embryonic sac 
or afterbirth, so that when the embryo reaches the size of one-eighth 
of an inch the embryonic sac is already quite large, as thick and long 
as an ordinary lead pencil, almost colorless, very thin and delicate, 
lying wholly free within the uterine cavity without any visible trace 
of placental attachment. 

Later, when the embryo has reached a length of 2 to 3 inches, the 
placental attachments appear, at first very feeble, as faintly red 
patches on the chorion, gradually enlarging and tliickenmg, the 
chorionic tufts becoming longer and more complex, wliile the coty- 



GEANULAE VENEKEAL DISEASE AND ABOETION IN CATTLE. 25 

ledons of the uterus undergo corresponding development. The 
intimacy of contact between the chorionic and uterine placentae grow 
apace throughout the duration of pregnancy. Upon tliis fact is 
based the common observation that when abortion occurs before tlie 
fetus has reached or materially exceeded 12 inches in length it is 
ordinarily expelled mclosed within its membranes. This is of impor- 
tance. Wliile retained placenta or afterbirth is notoriously common 
and serious after abortion, it is not Ukely to occur in early abortion, 
but only in those cases which have reached or exceeded the sixth or 
seventh month of pregnancy. The tendency to retained placenta 
increases with the advancement of pregnancy and reaches its liighest 
degree in cases of premature birth, unless we except those cases M'hich 
have reached the full period of pregnancy and given birth to living 
calves, in spite of extensive uterine infection. 

It has been supposed and taught that the firmness of union between 
the chorion and uterus decreases toward the completion of pregnancy, 
and that the parts begin to prepare before parturition for the expul- 
sion of the afterbirth. Observations on the killing floor directly 
contradict tliis assumption and show instead that the firmness of 
adhesion increases constantly up to birth. 

Early in pregnancy the margins of the internal os uteri are thicldy 
studded over with small placentae without marked peduncles. At 
times they form a complete girdle about the internal os, and come in 
contact with each other over the os to constitute a broad, flat pla- 
cental mass 2 to 3 inches across, totally masking the os. However, 
they are not endurmg, and when the fetus has readied a length of 10 
to 12 inches they begin to become detached and finally disappear. 
In the process of detachment more or less placental hemorrhage 
ensues, so that in a large proportion of cases where the fetus is 10 to 
1.5 uiches long a careful observation of the utero-chorionic space at 
the mternal os reveals a small blood clot, resting usually upon the 
uterine end of the uterine seal, where it undergoes retrogressive 
changes. At first bright red, it later becomes black, then fades slowly 
to a pale yellowish red, to constitute a sticky remnant staining the 
anterior end of the uterine seal. The amount varies; while usually 
but a drop or two, it may reach one-half ounce or more. As preg- 
nancy advances adjacent cotyledons begm to detach about their 
peripheries and small hemorrhages occur. Wliether physiological or 
pathological, the hemorrhage is suggestive of importance in relation 
to contagious abortion because at the very point where the abortion 
exudate commences to form there exists generally an amount of inert 
blood coagulum to fiu'nish a breeding groiuid for bacteria, hke a blood 
clot in a wound. 

Another phenomenon of a somewhat similar character is conunon 
among the larger, more typical cotyledons. As pregnancy advances 
43378°— 1 1 1 



26 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

there appeai-s at the periphery of many placentiE a pale yellowish- 
gray zone, very nari'ow, but showing a marked variation in color 
from the other parts. The pale zone upon examination consists of 
chorionic tufts wUch have been withdrawn from the cotyledonal 
crypts, and the tufts, losing their placental contact and fimction, 
become nonvascular and present a necrotic appearance. Their 
appearance suggests mechanical separation during the to-and-fro 
movements of the fetal sac within the uterine cavity. 

THE NECROTIC TIPS OF THE FETAL SAC. 

The cornual prolongations of the fetal sac grow out very quickly 
against the apices of the cornua and are longer than the cavities they 
occupy, so that they become crowded and suiuous. At an early 
period the tip of the fetal sac in each cornu becomes necrotic and 
either extends forward toward the oviduct as a naked, flattened, 
yellow, hard cord, incrusted in a calcareous-Uke substance, or it 
becomes invaginated into the cavity of the amnion or allantois. In 
the gravid horn the necrotic tip is generally invaginated into the fetal 
sac, while in the nongi'avid horn it largely hes naked, 1 to 6 or more 
inches long, lying free in the apex of the horn. 

When the necrotic tip is naked and exposed, when it comes in con- 
tact with the cornual mucosa, it is generally surrounded by a finely 
granular, yellowish or dirty lemon-colored fluid, suggesting a suspen- 
sion of pale yeUow brick dust in a fluid. There may be but a few 
drops, or the amount may reach 1, 2, or even 5 to 10 ounces. It 
appears hke an exudate resultmg from the mechanical irritation of the 
exposed necrotic tip and tends to be large or small in volume, accord- 
ing to the size of the necrotic tip. 

While these necrotic tips are universal at the cornual apices, there 
appeal's rarely a very similar phenomenon at the internal os. Appar- 
ently in the few instances observed the fetal sac had pushed out for a 
distance through the internal os, and, like the projections into the 
apices of the horns, became necrotic, and was later surrounded by the 
pale, brick-dust sediment. 

PREVALENCE OF ABORTION. 

The history of contagious abortion of cows is extensive, though it 
loses much of its interest and definiteness because of the inadequacy 
of the means for its diagnosis. 

Abortion statistics in any herd are necessarily inaccurate, and 
include only those cases in which the fetus has perished and been 
expelled at a period when its death and expulsion is recognized. In 
many outbreaks of abortion there is associated a large amount of 
steriUty. Many of these instances of assumed steriUty are in reality 



GRANULAR V'ENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 27 

abortion. A cow will be served by the bull and fail to come in heat 
for two to five periods, convincing the owner that she is pregnant, 
when unexpectedly she again shows estrum. While such phenomena 
may depend upon a variety of causes, abortion unquestionably 
accounts for many of these cases. Occasionally the breeder chances 
upon the freslily expelled embryo, which may be only 3 to 4 inches 
long. Since these embryos come away inclosed within the fetal 
membranes, leaving no afterbirths, the discovery of the abortion is 
a remote possibility. 

In rare cases the fetus dies from the infection of contagious abor- 
tion but is not expelled, and the cow or heifer appears sterile. Two 
things may occur: The fetus may undergo maceration, the tissues 
break down, some pus escape from the uterus, but largely remain in 
the organ as pyometra. In other cases the fetus does not break 
down, but desiccates to form an inert foreign body known as a 
mummy (lithopjedion). 

When pregnancy nears its close abortion again may escaj^e un- 
noticed. A fetus may be expelled alive at the eighth month, or oven 
earlier, because of the presence of the infection of contagious abortion 
in the uterus, and is commonly designated premature birth, though 
in fact its early expulsion is due to precisely the same cause as that 
which causes other fetuses to be expelled dead. Or, the infection 
being present, the fetus may Uve and develop up to the normal date 
for parturition, die immediately preceding labor, and be expelled 
fully developed, fresh, but dead, and it is classed as a stillbirth, 
though just as evidently an abortion as is the five months' fetus, 
killed by the same infection. Abortion statistics in any herd can 
accordingly be merely approximate. 

ABORTION DATA IN HERD A. 

As a basis upon which to build an outline of the behavior of abor- 
tion in a herd, we submit statistics from herd A ui Table 4 below. 
This herd at first consisted largely of grades, but was later changed 
into a pedigreed herd. The period covered is 22 years, which serves 
to afford a fair opportunity for arriving at the average rate of abortion. 
An average annual rate of 12 per cent of abortions is shown. The 
vacillations from year to year are exhibited in the diagram, figure 1, 
and the prevalence of abortion according to ago in another diagram, 
figure 2. During the earUer part of the time covered the herd con- 
sisted largely of adult cows, which were bought when mature, milked 
for a time, and sold. Later it has been the pohcy to grow all heifer 
calves and breed them. Thus there has been latterly a compara- 
tively large number of heifers in first or second pregnancy. 



28 



BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 


























































































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GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 



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GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND .■VBORTION IN CATTLE. 3i 



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32 



BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



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GKANULAE VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 33 



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BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



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GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 35 



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GBANULAR VENEEEAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 37 



oggosoon 



s^i, 






38 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

Figure 1 shows graphically the rise and fall of abortion above 
and below the average rate of 12 per cent in herd A from year to 
year. The chart shows three abortion storms in which the per- 
centage of knowir abortions exceeded 25, the most severe outbreak 
being in 1905, with recorded abortions in 42 per cent of pregnancies. 

In figure 2 it is aimed to show the influence of age as expressed 
by the consecutive number of the pregnancy. The general aim 
in the herd has been to breed heifers at 16 to 18 months of age, 
so that the first calving ordinarily means about 2 years old, the 
second 3 years old, etc. 

The intensity of abortion in first pregnancy seems to grow with 
the growth of the herd, while abortion in adult cows seems to decrease 
comparatively. As shown in figure 2, in 1911 the abortions in herd 
A amounted to 44 per cent of first pregnancies, to which abortion 
was confined exclusively for the year. The first pregnancies were 
proportionally the highest in the history of the herd. 

Summary of abortion data in herd A. 

Total number of cows 217 

Total number of pregnancies 645 

Average number of pregnancies per cow 3 

Total number of abortions 78 

Average abortions per annum 3.5 

Average per cent of abortions per anniun 12 

Number of individual cows aborted 71 

Percentage of cows wliich have aborted 33 

Number of cows aborting twice 7 

Number of cows aborting twice in succession 4 

Number of cows died or killed after first abortion 10 

Number of years covered 22 

Nimiber of cows in which no abortion occiured 6 

Longest dxuation in years without abortion 4 

Highest number of consecutive pregnancies without abortion 89 

Among the 217 cows of herd A occur the records of the first three 
or more pregnancies of 80 individuals. Of these 80 animals, 18 
were in the herd in 1905, 2 of which had aborted previously, and 
in one of these (50 per cent) abortion recurred. 

Of the 80 cows in Table 4 of wliich we have records of the first 
three pregnancies, there were aborting in the first or second preg- 
nancy 20, or 25 per cent; in the third or later pregnancy 18 or 
22.5 per cent; while the number not aborting was 42, or 52.5 per cent. 

The chronological order of abortions in these 80 individuals in 
their tliird or later pregnancies is shown in Table 5. The figures 
in parenthesis indicate that one animal in a group aborted a second 
time in the number of her pregnancy indicated by the figure. 



GRANI'LAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 



39 



Table 5. — Chronological order of abortions in cows of herd A from third pregnancy 
onward. 



Number 

of 

pregnancy. 


1899 


1900 


1901 


1902 


1903 


1904 


1905 


1906 


1907 


1903 


1909 


1910 


1911 


Total. 


Third 




1 










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1(2) 
2 

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1 


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7 














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1(45 




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2 








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2 




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2 




24 













Table 5 shows that when cows abort in their third or later preg- 
nancy it usually occiu's in a storm like that of 1905. Thus, in the SO 
animals tabulated, 10 abortions, or 41 per cent of all the abortions 
in thii'd or later pregnancies, covering a period of 22 years, occurred 
in one year. Fifteen of the 24 abortions occurred during the third 
and fourth pregnancies, thus indicating strikingly the influence of the 
age of the animal upon abortion. 

ABORTION RECORD IN HERD B. 

In the following data of herd B the annual rate of abortion increases 
from the 12 per cent of herd A to 17 per cent. The increase occurs 
not in adults, but in heifers, and especially in those pregnant for the 
first time. 

Summary of abortions in herd B, May, 1909, to December, 1911. 

Total pregnancies 1, 206 

Total abortions 213 

Percentage of abortions 17 

Number aborting but once , 167 

Number aborting twice 20 

Number aborting thrice 2 

Total number of cows aborting 189 

Abortions in first pregnancy, 99, or 46.5 per cent of all abortions and 50 per cent of first 

pregnancies. 
Abortions in second pregnancy, 70, or 33 per cent of all abortions and 34 per cent of 

second pregnancies. 
Abortions in third pregnancy, 2(i, or 12 per cent of all abortions. 
Abortions in fourth or later pregnancy, 18, or 8.5 per cent of all abortions. 

Repeated abortions. 

First and second pregnancy 15 

First, second, and third pregnancy 2 

Second and third pregnancy 2 

Thii'd and fourth pregnancy 1 

Fourth and fifth pregnancy 1 

Fifth and sixth pregnancy 1 . 

Total 22 



40 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUKE. 

Other abortion statistics available to us would not modify essen- 
tially the general picture of the disease. Generally we believe that 
the average rate of abortion in pedigreed herds falls between 10 and 
15 per cent per annum, rising and faUing from year to year, unseen 
possibly in the smaller herds for one, two, or three consecutive years, 
then showing itself again, gathering force for awhile, and culminating 
in a great explosion of the disease which forces the percentage of loss 
up to 30, 50, or 75 per cent, or even higher. It is not at all rare in a 
group of 10 to 20 heifers pregnant for the first time for the abortion 
loss to reach 90 or even 100 per cent. In small herds of 5 to 15 or 20 
animals, mostly adults, the percentage of abortion is usually far below 
the above ratio. 

SYMPTOMS OF ABORTION. 

The symptoms of cattle abortion are as yet extremely vague. 
They popularly fall into three groups — the signs of impending abor- 
tion, the phenomenon of aborting, and the evidences that abortion 
has occurred. 

The symptoms of impending abortion comprise chiefly tumefaction 
of the udder and of the vulva, vaginal discharge, and sinking of the 
broad ligaments of the pelvis, any or all of which may fail or may be 
deceptive. Tumefaction of the udder is not common unless the preg- 
nancy has passed the fifth month; even then it is not rehable. In 
milking cows it is usually unobservable. The erroneous assumption 
that tumefaction of the udder indicates that a heifer will certainly 
abort leads to the error that the use of certain nostrums have blocked 
an impending abortion. Heifers pregnant for the first time not 
rarely suffer from a severe mammitis or garget as early as the sixth 
month, which has no known relation to abortion. Heifers which 
have never been in calf show at times swelling of the udder, and may 
even milk freely. The sinking of the pelvic ligaments is more indica- 
tive of impending abortion, and may be regarded as an unfavorable 
sign when present, but this is only in a minority of cases. 

The evidences of the act of the expulsion of the fetus are largely 
dependent upon the duration of pregnancy, because the force required 
for its expulsion naturally depends upon its dimensions. In the 
earlier stages of pregnancy no expulsive efforts are seen, and it is only 
by the chance observation of the embryonic sac passing through the 
vulva that the act is observed at all. As pregnancy becomes more 
advanced the expulsive act assumes more and more the general aspect 
of normal parturition. 

If the act of the expulsion of the fetus passes unobserved and the 
afterbirth has come away, there is little to indicate that abortion has 
occurred until the cow again comes in heat. If she is well advanced 
in pregnancy the abortion is very liable to be followed by retained 
placenta, which is usually clearly recognizable. 



GRANULAK VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 41 

The definite clinical diagnosis of impending abortion is essen- 
tially impossible until the condition has so far advanced that the 
preliminary acts of abortion, as dilation of the cervical canal, pro- 
trusion of fetal membranes, etc., have become established. The deter- 
mination of the fact that abortion has occurred must be based upon 
the recognition of the expelled fetus or afterbirth as belonging to 
the animal, or, if it is known that she has been pregnant, it must be 
established by rectal or other examination that pregnancy has 
terminated. 

The differential diagnosis between accidental and contagious 
abortion is largely impracticable in the living animal. It has been 
proposed to differentiate them in a variety of ways; for example, to 
separate the two classes of abortion by recognizing the presence of 
the Bacillus ahortus in the placenta or uterine exudate of the one 
group while it is absent in the other. While some have laid claim to 
the possession of such skill, the accuracy of the conclusion that 
merely negative findings indicate the absence of contagious abortion 
does not seem wholly warranted. 

McFadyean and Stockman, Sven Wall, Holth, and others claim 
much for the diagnosis of the disease by means of the complement- 
fixation and agglutination tests. Thus far, however, it has only 
been showTi according to data submitted that certain animals which 
had recently aborted reacted. They have not shown that all reacting 
animals are bearers of the infection of abortion, nor that all bearers 
of the infection react. The character of the conclusion from the 
data assembled is well expressed by Wall: "A reaction indicates 
that the animal is or has been infected with contagious abortion." 
Animals which had aborted quite commonly reacted more than two 
years after abortion. Apparently an impending abortion may not 
ordinarily be foretold by these tests. 

The post-mortem diagnosis of contagious abortion appears to be 
more certain and the phenomena fairly well established, especially 
in relation to the presence of the abortion exudate. This exudate, 
in the present state of our knowledge, is characteristic and con- 
clusive. However, post-mortem examinations upon cows which 
have recently aborted have been all too few in number, but the 
phenomena presented are very uniform. We have had opportunity 
of making post-mortem examinations upon seven recently aborted 
cows and heifers, with the following results, which were in each case 
essentially identical : 

Case 1. — A 2-year-old Hereford heifer shipped from Garden City, Kans., on May 17 
to Kansas City and unloaded the following morning. It was found that during the 
night of May 19 she gave birth to a small, weak, live calf, at apparently about the 
seventh month. She was slaughtered about 11 a. m. The heifer was in good general 
condition and apparently healthy. 



42 BULLETIN 106, V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

The calf, a heifer, was very weak, unable to get up or stand. Its hair was long, 
shaggy, and lusterless. It had the general appearance of emaciation. It measured 
31 inches from occiput to base of tail and weighed 25 pounds. The buttocks were 
soiled from thin yellow diarrheic feces. The calf was destroyed at 10.30 a. m. by 
bleeding from the carotids, and the body cavity was laid open along the median 
ventral line. The spleen was markedly hemorrhagic. The liver was swollen, tense, 
glistening, and showed hemorrhagic areas. It was distinctly icteric in appearance. 
The heart showed hemorrhages beneath the pericardium along the groove between 
the ventricles. 

The examination of the genital organs of the aborting heifer revealed the following 
changes : 

The vagina was congested at the anterior portion and contained some dirty reddish- 
gray mucus, streaked with blood and apparently containing some pus. 

The uterus measured 22 by 38 inches. Its exterior offered nothing notably 
abnormal. The walls were a trifle thick, dense, and opaque. The organ seemed 
plump, and involution apparently progressing favorably. There were no evidences 
of mechanical injurj'. 

The cervical canal was dilated and its mucosa was ecchymotic (parturient con- 
tusion). 

The fetal membranes were all retained. Those of the nongravid horn were edema- 
tous. Aside from the rent at the internal os through which the fetus was expelled, 
the membranes were intact and exhibited no trace of mechanical injury. About 
the internal os a few cotyledons were detached from the chorion, and all the cotyledons 
were readily detachable. After detachment the chorionic tufts were pale, dirty 
yellow, and adhesive to the fingers, like the abortion exudate. There were small 
interplacental hemorrhages, but nothing beyond what is usually observed in healthy 
gravid uteri. The inner surfaces of the amnion and allantois appeared normal and 
their cavaties were empty. The uterine contents were odorless. 

The uterine mucosa was pale yellowish, dense, thickened, and somewhat granular 
in appearance. 

In the utero-chorionic space of nongravid horn there was an abundant, dirty gray, 
flocculent, viscid, puriform exudate, quite tenacious in places, and especially abun- 
dant at the base of the horn and for 10 or 12 inches toward the apex, after which the 
cavity was empty. 

In the gravid horn the exudate was very abundant and identical with that in the 
nongravid horn. It was most abundant near the internal os uteri and for a distance 
of 20 to 25 inches along the greater curvature, diminishing toward the apex of the 
horn until in that region the mucosa was approximately normal and clean. 

Case 2. — A heifer apparently 2 years old and estimated at 625 pounds weight 
aborted in the car during transit to Kansas City. Nearly all the animals in the car 
were affected with ulcerative ano-vulvitis. The abortion was discovered about 
9 a. m. The vagina was extensively ulcerated, cankerous-appearing, red, and bleed- 
ing at touch. The broken end of the umbilic cord lay within the vulva, appearing 
comparatively fresh. 

The animal was killed by bleeding at 3 p. m., and the autopsy followed imme- 
diately. The uterus, vagina, and vulva were removed intact. 

The uterus measured 16J by 28 inches, was plump, firm, more opaque than a pr^- 
nant uterus, but except by careful examination would be passed as a gravid uterus 
with a fetus 4 to 8 inches long. 

The uterine peritoneum was apparently normal and showed no visible traces of 
traumatism. Upon incising the uterus it was found that the fetal membranes were 
completely retained. A few cotyledons, in fact approximately all those in the cavity 
of the body of the uterus, were detached from the chorion. The chorion of the non- 
gravid horn, except at its base, was also detached from the cotyledons. In the gravid 



GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 43 

lioru the chorion was firmly adherent to the cotyledons and attempts to detach it 
resulted in its giving way and the chorionic tufts being more or less completely re- 
tained in the cotyledonal crj^jts. 

The cotyledons were 2 to 3 inches in their greatest diameter and deeply injected, 
brownish-red in color. The intense injection extended one-half inch or more into 
the cortical substance of the cotyledons, after which they appeared a dirt}', necrotic- 
like, yellowish-gray color. The cotyledons were hard, swollen, and infiltrated. 

The afterbirth was retained due to cotyledonitis, which had e\'idently antedated 
the expulsion of the fetus and would probably have resulted eventually, had the heifer 
lived, in total necrosis and sloughing of the cotyledons. The placenta was not 
markedly putrid. There was but little if any fetor present. The odor was rather 
of an unpleasant sweetish character. 

The chorionic tufts were soft, adhesive, and necrotic-looking. The tufts, where 
detached from the cotyledons, would stick to the fingers. The amniotic and allantoic 
cavities were empty except for scattering fragments of tissue diSbris or coagula. 

The utero-chorionic cavity was filled with a puslike substance throughout its 
entire area. The exudate was dirty gray, flocculent, floating in thinner liquid. It 
wanted that adhesiveness usually observed in the abortion exudate in closed uteri. 
The admixture of fetal fluids had served to change the physical character of the 
exudate. 

The uterine mucosa was inflamed, thickened, uneven, and granular in appearance. 
In some areas there was a dirty-gray firmly adherent exudate; in other areas the mucosa 
was naked, injected, inflamed, and showed petechial hemorrhages. The fetus was 
28 inches from occiput to sacrum. 

Case S. — A 2-year-old heifer which had been driven a distance of 25 miles and yarded 
overnight in the Denver stockyards on June 2. At 7.45 a. m. June 3 she expelled 
an 11-inch fetus with the fetal sac complete. The heifer was slaughtered 4 hours 
after she aborted. 

The carcass was thin and emaciated. The mammary gland was enlarged as though 
parturition were impending. After slaughter there escaped from the vulva one-half 
ounce or more of a dirty-grayish, flocgulent exudate, faintly tinged with red. After 
the removal of the skin no traumatism of the body walls could be detected. Granular 
vaginitis was well marked, but not intense. The uterine walls were one-fourth of an 
inch thick, vascular, and petechial. 

The uterine cavity, including both horns, contained 3 or 4 ounces of a dirty-looking, 
flocculent exudate, floating in a thin watery liquid. The cluirps of exudate were 
somewhat viscid, and the masses were largely adherent about the pedicels of the 
cotyledons. 

The exudate had the general appearance of that described as the typical exudate of 
contagious abortion, but its glutinous character had been modified by the presence in 
the cavity of portions of the amniotic and allantoic fluids. 

The cotyledons were \l inches in diameter, hemorrhagic in the cortical area, and 
the surface was scarlet in color, like oxygenated blood. The cotyledonal crypts con- 
tained some chorionic tufts. 

The chorion was edematous, one-half inch thick, and comparatively free from odor. 
The chorionic placental areas were pale, soft, and sticky. 

Cose 4-— Inoculated May 2, 1911 (10 c. c. of abortion-bacillus culture in the jugular 
vein), aborted May 9 and killed May 10, 1911. A few cotyledons near the internal os 
were scarlet. The cotyledons were covered more or less irregularly with a yellowish- 
gray substance resembling pus in consistency, but more yellow. This was found 
over the majority of the cotyledons. There was very marked edema beneath the mu- 
cosa near the internal os, and in this region were also several areas of redness. 

Case 5. — Inoculated May 2, 1911 (15 c. c. of abortion-bacillus culture in the jugular 
vein), aborted May 28 and killed May 29, 1911. The placenta showed considerable 



44 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

edema. In the utero-chorionic space there was an abundance of a sticky yellowish 
substance in small masses 1 to 5 mm. in diameter. Some of the cotyledons were scarlet. 
The organism of abortion was recovered from the uterus. 

Case 6. — Inoculated May 2, 1911 (15 c. c. of abortion bacillus culture in the jugular 
vein), aborted July 25, and killed July 26, 1911. In the utero-chorionic space there 
were found numerous irregular masses of a yellowish substance that tended to adhere 
to the chorion. This substance was in small flakelike masses varying in size from 1 
to 10 mm. in diameter and from 1 to 3 mm. in thickness. It was also found around the 
separated cotyledons and was very much in evidence in the fimdus of the uterus, where 
it had been washed by the fluids. A few cotyledons near the internal os were scarlet. 
The chorion showed slight edema throughout. The organism of abortion was recovered 
from the uterus. 

Case 7. — Inoculated May 2, 1911 (10 c. c. of abortion bacillus culture in the jugular 
vein), aborted July 26, and killed July 26, 1911. The gravid horn of the placenta 
showed marked edema. A substance similar to that found in the utero-chorionic 
space of Case 6 was found, but was present here in a much smaller amount. The or- 
ganism of abortion was not recovered. 

The lesions recorded in the foregoing appear identical with those 
described as typical of contagions abortion. The uniformity with 
which the abortion exudate has been demonstrated in aU recorded 
autopsies inunediately following abortion in cows witnesses strongly 
that the abortion exudate has an essential relation in the causation 
of contagious abortion, and, so far as the small number of recorded 
autopsies can support, indicates that abortion in cows is an essen- 
tially contagious disease and that mechanical abortion is rare and 
negligible. 

PHENOMENA WITHIN THE UTERINE CAVITY. 

During our investigations we observed numerous instances where 
some suggestive phenomena appeared within the uterine cavity. 
Twenty-two of these cases presented evidences warranting the con- 
clusion that the infection of contagious abortion was present, or (in 
cases where the fetus had perished and undergone more or less dis- 
integration) that they had been infected with contagious abortion. 
While the cases vary somewhat in their character, they agree in a 
general way with each other and are in substantial accord with the 
lesions observed in the uteri of cows killed immediately after abortion. 

Case 1. — Age four years, length of fetus 31 inches, right ovary normal, left ovary 
corpus luteum. Uterine seal intact. Exterior of uterus normal. The utero-chorionic 
space was fiUed throughout with an exudate of a dirty grayish color, pushke in ap- 
pearance, odorless. The exudate was thickest at the cervix. The total amount of 
exudate was estimated at 1 gallon. The uterine walls were not materially thickened, 
the uterine mucosa was injected with some small, necrotic-appearing patches. The 
cotyledons were freely detachable, but not materially altered. The chorion appeared 
normal in thickness in the gravid horn, edematous in the nongravid. The uterine 
surface of the chorion was injected. 

The allantois, amnion, and fetus were apparently normal. 

Case 2. — Aged cow, fetus full term. Uterine seal intact. Upon opening the uterine 
cavity a yellowish-brown, tough exudate was found about the os uteri internum. 



GRANULAR VEKEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 45 

Cases. — Aged, length of fetus 36 inches, about full term. Uterine seal softened. 
Utero-chorionic space contained a tough, pale yellowish-red puslike mass of exudate 
about the internal os. Further from the os internum, the utero-chorionic space con- 
tained much uterine sand, bright orange-colored, ^^'hile the exudate extended over 
the entire utero-chorionic space, only that radiating from the internal os was typical 
of contagious abortion. 

Case 4- — Aged, embryo 2J inches. Uterine seal absent, either unformed or broken 
down. Utero-chorionic space contains 10 to 12 ounces of thin, grayish-yellow purulent- 
Hke exudate. Fetus apparently normal. 

Case 5. — Two-year-old, fetus 18 inches. Uterine seal softened and partly broken 
down at internal os, but intact and normal elsewhere. Radiating from os uteri inter- 
num in the utero-chorionic cavity for a distance of 4 inches is a tough, dirty grayish- 
yellow exudate. 

Case 6. — Aged cow. Length of fetus 16 inches. Uterine seal intact. Abortion 
exudate in utero-chorionic space radiating from internal os uteri 2 to 3 inches in the 
nongra\'ld and 12 to 15 inches in the gravid horn, mostly in flat, reddish-brown, tough, 
gluey masses 1 inch long by one-eighth inch thick. In other places the exudate is a 
dirty graj-ish yellow color, either semifluid or in tough, flat masses. The exudate 
is deposited chiefly about the cotyledonal stalks, especially the more primitive ones 
about the internal os. 

Case 7. — Aged. Length of fetus, estimated 6 to 9 inches. Uterine seal destroyed. 

Horns 3 inches in diameter by 10 inches long, hard, tense, with sclerotic walls one- 
half inch. Uterine cavity contained 4 ounces of thin, brown, flocculent pus in 
which were masses of bones apparently from a fetus 6 to 9 inches long. Apex of right 
horn adherent to broad ligament. Abscess in uterine end of left o\-iduct containing 
one-eighth ounce thick yellow pus. 

Case 8. — Aged. Twin pregnancy. Fetuses 9 inches, apparently long dead, mac- 
erated, dirty gray, soft, odorless. 

Amniotic and allantoic fluids dirty gray, flocculent, opaque, odorless, chorion com- 
pletely detached. Fetal membranes edematous, one-half inch thick. Utero- 
chorionic ca^^ty filled with fluid like that in amnion and allantois. 

Case 9. — Aged. Length of fetus, 30 inches. Uterine seal orange-colored and broken 
down. Orange-yellow, gluey masses of exudate about the internal os 1 by one-eighth 
inch in size. 

Case 10. — Four-year old. Length of fetus, 2 inches. 

The chorion of the left (nongra\'id) horn was detached from the right portion, necrotic, 
dirty grayish in color, and surrounded by a dirty-grayish fluid exudate. A tough 
yellowish exudate in the utero-chorionic space at internal os. 

Case 11. — Aged. Fetus full term, apparently alive at time of slaughter. Exterior 
of uterus normal. Uterine seal apparently somewhat softened; otherwise normal. 

Utero-chorionic space fllled with exudate throughout, except at one point in greater 
curvature of the gravid horn, wliich appeared normal. The exudate varied in appear- 
ance, dirty reddish-gray in color, in some places collected in irregular, flat, firm, gluey 
masses 2 to 4 inches by one-eighth inch and at other points a semifluid, viscid mass. 

The exudate was thickest about the internal os uteri, and from that point radiated 
out 18 inches to the apex of the nongravid horn, and 48 inches or more to the apex of 
the gravid horn. The gluey masses were largely adherent about the cotyledonal 
stalks. The chorion was markedly edematous, 1 to 2 inches thick. 

Case 12. — Aged. Full-term fetus. Uterine seal intact. Utero-chorionic space 
filled with an abundant, tough, orange-brown, very gluey, sticky exudate, radiating 
out from the internal os 4 inches in the nongravid horn and 12 inches into the gravid 
horn, largely massed about cotyledonal stalks, but in places extending from cotyledon 
to cotyledon. Exudate one-fiftieth to one-twentieth of an inch thick, and in masses 
as much as 4 inches across. 



46 BULLETIN 106, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICXJLrtlRE. 

Case 13. — Aged. Length of fetus, 20 inches. Uterine seal at internal os lemon- 
colored, elongated, ragged, and apparently mixed with muco-pus. Pressure on cervix 
caused oozing of yellowish exudate into uterine ca\ity. Uterine seal at os externum 
apparently somewhat softened, but otherwise normal. 

Utero-chorionic space radiating from internal os contains a considerable amoimt of a 
thin, yellowish, puriform exudate. 

Case 14- — Aged. Fetus full term. The iiterine seal was normal, or slightly softened. 
Externally the uterus appeared normal. The entire utero-chorionic cavity of the 
gra\'id horn was covered with a layer of chocolate-colored, gluey exudate, so abundant 
and firm that the uterine mucosa and exterior of the chorion seemed firmly glued 
together between the cotyledons. 

For a few square inches at the internal os the exudate is mixed with tenacious 
masses resembling thick, viscid pus. Similar masses to the extent of 2 to 3 ounces 
were in the nongravid horn, and it is quite possible that thepusUke masses about the 
internal os emanated from the nongravid horn. 

As usual, the exudate appeared largely clustered about the cotyledonal stalks, not 
because formed there, perhaps, but rather owing to the tendency of the cotyledons to 
push the uterus and chorion apart at these points and thus form room in which the 
exudate would tend to acciunulate. 

The chorion was edematous, 1 inch thick, especially in the nongravid horn. 

The placentae were readily detachable. The peripheral chorionic tufts were pale, 
anemic, apparently necrotic, while the deeper tufts were vascular and normal. This 
variation in color of chorionic tufts is essentially universal, if not normal. 

Case 15. — Aged. Fetus full term. Uterine seal normal. The utero-chorionic space 
was filled throughout its entire area with a dark chocolate-colored gluey exudate, 
which was so adhesive that the separation of the chorion from the uterine mucosa 
required some force. Detaching the chorion from the uterus, the opposing surfaces, 
when macroscopically cleared of the exudate, remained sticky to the touch. The 
exudate was more uniformly distributed than observed in most cases, and disposed 
in a practically continuous sheet throughout the utero-chorionic cavity, thicker, as 
usual, about the cotyledonal stalks. 

The uterine mucosa and uterine surface of the chorion were pinkish in color, and 
showed no marked discoloration, thickening, or other pathological changes. 

The fetus, fetal fluids, amnion, and allantois appeared wholly normal. 

The placental attachments were as usual, the placentae readily detachable. At the 
periphery, as is usual, some of the chorionic tufts were withdrawn from the uterine 
crypts and were consequently blanched, dirty-gray in color, and soft. 

Case 16. — Two-year-old. Length of fetus, 9i inches. Uterine seal normal. 

The fetal sac of the nongravid horn and of the uterine body about the internal os 
was necrotic. 

The sac of the nongravid horn was 13 inches long, devoid of cotyledons, desiccated, 
yellow, flattened to one-eighth of an inch thick, twisted spirally. It lay wholly free 
in the horn cavity, surrounded by a dirty, viscid, yellowish-brown tough exudate, 
estimated at 1 ounce. 

The utero-chorionic space of the gravid horn contained exudate for a distance of 
6 inches from the internal os. The uterine mucosa over the involved area was pale 
yellowish, thickened, and roughened. 

Cose 17. — Aged. Fetus 38 inches long. Uterine seal intact. 

Radiating from the internal os for a distance of 12 inches, the utero-chorionic cavity 
was filled with a brownish-yellow, very viscid pus-like exudate one-eighth to one- 
fourth of an inch in diameter. The fetus, anmion, and allantois were normal. 

Case IS. — Aged. Length of fetus, 28 inches. Uterine seal intact. 

Typical abortion exudate over entire utero-chorionic cavity. Exudate reddish- 
brown or light chocolate in color, in maBses 1 by one-sixteenth inch, tough, sticky. 



i-AR VEKEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 47 
GRAN" 

Case 19. — Aged. Length of fetus, 9 inches. Uterine seal destroyed and cervical 
canal dilated. 

Exterior of uterus pale yellow, the walls three-eighths of an inch thick, edematous, 
from which the chorion was completely detached, macerated, and very fragile. 
Faintly sweetish odor. Utero-chorionic space filled with a thin liquid in which 
floated dirty-gray flocculent masses and some viscid mucua. 

The fetal membranes were edematous and brownish-green. 

Cotyledons 1 to 2 inches, scarlet, necrotic, and readily detachable from their stalks. 

Case 20. — Aged. Length of fetus, 11 inches. Uterine seal intact. 

Radiating from the internal os for 12 inches in the utero-chorionic cavity is a dirty 
yellowish-gray sticky exudate. Uterine mucosa injected, submucous petechise. 
The uterine walls at the apex of the gravid horn are one-half inch thick and very 
edematous. 

Case 21. — Aged. Fetus 38 inches long. Uterine seal unbroken. 

Exudate commences about 6 inches from the os uteri internum and extends to 
within 12 inches of apex of comua, completely encircling it. The internal os is 
surrounded by thickly diffuse placentae showing abundant inter-placental hemor- 
rhages. Apparently the diffuse placenta and close apposition of uterus and chorion 
explain the absence of the exudate at this point. 

The exudate is chestnut-colored, very tough, and sticky. It is collected most 
prominently about the cotyledonal stalks, in masses often one-half inch wide by 
one thirty-second to one-sixteenth inch thick. Portions of exudate lie free in cavity. 

Case 22. — Aged. Fetus 36 inches long. Uterine seal intact. 

Radiating from the internal os for a distance of 8 to 10 inches is a small amount 
of very sticky, tough, chocolate-colored exudate. Lesser quantities are observed 
near the apex of the gravid comu. 

The findings of Bang, McFadyean, and Stoclanan, along witli those 
recorded above, seem to justify the conclusion that the abortion 
exudate is an essential and universal phenomenon ia contagious 
abortion. It does not show that the presence of the abortion exudate 
in any stated amoimt must be followed by abortion, but rather that 
its presence imperils the life of the fetus. 

AVENUE OF INFECTION. 

The two natural avenues of mfection suggested for cattle abortion 
are the genital tube and the alimentary canal. McFadyean and 
Stockman, and to a lesser degree Bang, consider the alimentary 
tract the chief avenue of infection and submit experimental evidence 
in which animals so exposed have aborted, or, having been killed 
while yet pregnant, have revealed the exudate and bacilli in the 
utero-chorionic cavity. They have not shown conclusively that other 
means of infection were elunmated. OrdmarUy the experimenter 
could not know that the Bacillus ahortus was not already in the 
utero-chorionic cavity or could not invade it through other avenues. 

The infection by ingestion, as well as the experimental methods of 
intravenous and hypodermic inoctilations, assume that the hifection 
enters the blood and finally reaches the utero-chorionic space. But 
the supposed pathway by which the mfection thus gains the utero- 
chorionic cavity is not stated. Presumably under this hypothesis 



48 BtTLLETIN 106, tJ. S. DEPABTMEKT OF AGRICrLitTRE. 

the mfection must pass from the blood either through the placental 
filter or through the inter-cotyledonal utermo mucosa. 

To the hypothesis that the infection enters through the placental 
filter is opposed the size of the Bang organism, which is about that 
of the bacillus of tuberciilosis, an organism which is not known to 
pass the placental filter. The failure of the Bacillus abortus to pass 
the placental filter is further evidenced by the investigations of 
McFadyean and Stockman, which show that the infection appears 
first in the utero-chorionic space, secondly in the the fetal fluids and 
the fetal aUmentary canal, and lastly in the fetal blood, in reverse 
order to what we should expect imder this hypothesis. 

If the infection be mtroduced into the blood to escape into the 
utero-chorionic space through the intercotyledonal mucosa, we 
would expect the invasion to occur indifferently at anj^, and perhaps 
multiple points. A study of the location of the recorded lesions on 
pages 44-47 denies this. 

Originally Bang held that the genital canal was the avenue of 
infection, in which case any phenomena resulting from the invasion 
shoidd normally begin at the internal os and radiate therefrom 
forward. This is precisely what occurs with great miiformity. 
No recorded case presents evidence to the contrary. 

It has been noted on page 23 that the uterine cavity normally 
becomes hermetically sealed when the embryo is one-half inch in 
length. The state of the uterine seal was closely observed, especially 
for any indications of changes from bacterial invasion. At no time 
when the uterme cavity was healthy were we able to note any sign 
of injury, mechanical or bacterial, to its outer or vaginal end nor Ln 
its central portion, regardless of the presence of muco-pus in the 
vagina, or of weU-marked chronic vagmitis or other lesions, but in 
those cases where the fetus had died prior to the slaughter of the 
mother the uterine seal showed more or less complete disintegration. 
When the abortion exudate was present, the uterine end of the seal 
was stained, softened, and undei'going solution. Ita ppears to us, 
therefore, that the infection of contagious abortion not only enters 
the uterine cavity through the cervical canal, but precedes the for- 
mation of the uterine seal. We beheve that as a rule the infection 
is present in the genital tract in cows and in virgin heifers prior to 
breedmg. 

SLx 3-year-old heifers were subjected by us to an experiment. 
Three had calved once each; the other three were virgin heifers. 
For a few weeks prior to breeding, the genitalia of the six heifers 
and the bull were washed occasionally. After breeding, each received 
in the jugular vein vigorous cultures of the Bang abortion bacillus, 
with the following results: 



GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 49 

1. First pregnancy. Bred May 5, 191L Inoculated July 6, 1911 (10 c. c. iu the 
jugular vein). Killed January 3, 1912. Uterine seal intact. Maternal and fetal 
membranes clean and normal. Abortion organism not found. 

2. First pregnancy. Bred April 20, 1911. Inoculated July 6, 1911 (10 c. c. in the 
jugular vein). Killed November 14, 1911. Over the placenta from the internal oa 
anteriorly for a distance of 10 inches there was a yellowish-white, nonodorous, pasty 
substance that adhered closely to the placental membrane. This substance was also 
foimd in thick rings immediately surrounding the cotyledons. The cotyledons were 
scarlet. Abortion organism found. 

3. First pregnancy. Bred April 14, 1911. Inoculated July 6, 1911 (10 c. c. in the 
jugular vein). Killed October 25, 1911. All fetal and maternal structures appeared 
clean and normal. Abortion organism not found. 

4. Second pregnancy. Inoculated January 30, 1911 (20 c. c. in the jugular vein). 
Killed August 10, 192 days after inoculation. Uterine seal intact; chorion, uterus, 
fetal membranes, and fetus normal; chorionic cavity empty. No abortion bacilli 
recognized microscopically or culturally. 

5. Second pregnancy. Inoculated July 6, 1911 (7 c. c. in the jugular vein). Died 
August 2, 1911, of generalized tuberculosis. Fetus 5 inches in length. All fetal and 
genital structures appeared clean and normal. 

6. Second pregnancy. Bred April 1, 1911. Inoculated July 6, 1911 (10 c. c. in 
the jugular vein). Killed November 6, 1911. All fetal and genital structures clean 
and healthy. Abortion organism not found. 

It seemed that in these experiments strong evidence was brought 
forth to indicate that a very cursory, intermittent washing of the 
vagina of the heifer, guarding the cervical canal against invasion, 
and of the sheath of the bidl prior to breeding exerted a very marked 
influence upon the question of abortion. The heifers occupied the 
same field where five adult cows aborted, and had every opportimity 
to take the infection into the alimentary tract. 

These and other observations compel us to beheve also that if, 
prior to breeding, the granular venereal disease be reduced to a 
minimimi by repeated disinfection, and the cow is then bred to a 
clean bull, abortion is not probable, even with intravenous inocidation 
with abortion bacUh and with ample opportmiity for natural infection 
by the alimentary tract or otherwise. 

The amoimt of the abortion exudate in the uterus varies widely, 
from the mass 1 inch across at the internal os as recorded in one 
case by McFadyean and Stockman, to the complete invasion of the 
utero-chorionic cavity, but apparently abortion follows only in very 
extensive or complete invasion. 

THE CONTROL OF CONTAGIOUS ABORTION. 

If we accept the belief championed especially by McFadyean and 
Stockman, that the organisms may invade the uterus at any epoch 
of pregnancy or before conception, that the chief avenue of infection 
is the alimentary canal ; that as shown by the agglutination and com- 
plement-fixation tests, the infection is in well nigh every herd; 



50 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGKICULTTJRE. 

that the organism is present in the milk of many herds; and that 
vaginal discharges, feces, and milk must contaminate the food of 
almost all cattle, the outlook for the conti-ol of abortion becomes 
discouraging, if not hopeless. 

On the other hand, if we accept the original view of Bang that the 
cervical canal is the usual avenue of invasion of the uterus, or adopt 
our own view that it is essentially the sole avenue and that the inva- 
sion must always occur prior to the sealing of the uterus, the outlook 
becomes somewhat more favorable, though stiU a formidable task. 

Tlie liistory of attempts to control contagious abortion is every- 
where strewn with disappointment, and has opened a rich field for 
much of the boldest quackery every practiced upon breeders. If our 
views are correct, the presence of an aborting cow amongst pregnant 
cows can have no danger because, if the utero-chorionic space in the 
uteri of the pregnant animals is clean and the uterine seal is normal, 
any infection ehminated by the aborting animal can not reach the 
uterine cavity of a neighboring healthy cow. Common decency, 
however, in the production of milk cUctates that aborted fetuses 
should be promptly removed in a sanitar}' manner and aborters 
having retained placenta or vaginal discharges should be excluded 
from the dairy till healed, and that soiled stalls or gutters should be 
cleaned. 

Repressive laws against contagious abortion in cattle have been 
proposed by various veterinarians, involving compulsory reporting 
of outbreaks, quarantine of infected herds, exclusion of affected 
animals from cattle shows, etc. So far as we know, no such laws have 
ever been put in force. The wide dissemination of the disease, its 
insidiousness, the uncertainty of its diagnosis, and other difficulties 
make the apphcation of such laws impracticable. 

The sale of aborting animals has been largely practiced by some 
breeders and dairymen. It is a wasteful and hopeless process. Our 
data indicate that 25 to 50 per cent of all cows ultimately abort once, 
so that the dispersal process is an economic waste and it fails to check 
abortion. 

It has generally been claimed that one abortion affords a large 
degree of immunity. This is, according to our data, wholly erroneous. 
The idea that one or two abortions should confer immunity against 
future abortions is contrary to reason. It is the five mother and not 
the dead fetus wliich needs to be immunized. There is no more 
reason why a cow which has aborted shall thereby acquire an immu- 
nity than that one which gives birtli prematurely to a calf because 
of the infection of contagious abortion in her uterus should become 
immune, or that a cow suffering from retained placenta from abortion 
infection, although the caH be carried full time and born healthy, 
should be immune. 



GRANTJLAE VENEEEAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 51 

In one herd during a period of 10 years 61 heifers were bred on 
the premises for the first time, of wliich 3, or 5 per cent, failed to con- 
ceive and 58 became pregnant. Among the 58 heifers in first preg- 
nancy 21 animals, or 36 per cent, aborted or calved prematurely. 
Nine of the 21 aborting in first pregnancy did not conceive a second 
time. Ten, or 48 per cent, of the heifere aborting during first preg- 
nancy had reached, at the date of compilation, the termination of 
second pregnancy with two abortions (20 per cent). Tliirty seven 
heifers calved from their first pregnancy, of wliich 25 (67 per cent) 
had terminated their second pregnancy at the date of compilation. 
Of these 25, 4 (16 per cent) aborted. 

One of the four heifers wliich calved from the first pregnancy and 
aborted from the second had retained placenta, wliich should be 
accepted as indicating that the abortion infection had then seriously 
invaded the pregnant uterus. Adding her to the fii-st group of 10 
heifers which aborted during first pregnancy and conceived again, we 
have a total of 11, with 3 abortions, making 27 per cent of heifers 
aborting during first pregnancy and reaborting during second preg- 
nancy. If we deduct this heifer from the group calving normally 
from the fu'st pregnancy and aborting during the second, the total 
is reduced to 24 animals, of which 3 (12 per cent) aborted. In other 
words, the vital statistics of this herd intlicate that a heifer wliich has 
aborted or given birth to a premature calf or in wliich calving has 
been comphcated by retained placenta is more than twice as liable 
to abort dming her second pregnancy as is a heifer wliich has calved 
normally from her first pregnancy. 

The statement is frequently heard that after two abortions a 
marked immunity is acquired. Our data emphatically contracHcts 
this. Few cows ever conceive after a second abortion. A large 
proportion of them succumb to metritis (placentitis with retained 
placenta), many fail to breed again, and many othei"s are sold to the 
butcher or are othei'wise excluded from the herd. 

Regarding premature birth and retained placenta as equivalents 
of abortion, 4 animals in the herd aborted twice or oftener. Of 
these 4 reaborters, one was sold after the second abortion, another was 
sterile for a year and then bred regularly, the tliird bred regularly 
for seven years. Tlie fourth cow aborted her fu'st pregnancy and 
had retained placenta, her second pregnancy resulted the same; she 
was sterile her tliird breeding year; gave a premature birth with 
retained placenta her fourth breeding year; and a calf and retained 
placenta and fetal metritis in her fifth breecUng year. The common 
behef that abortion induces immunity to future abortions is one of 
the most unfortunate errors wliich has been allowed to creep into the 
question of abortion in cattle. One abortion predisposes to re- 
abortion. 



52 BULLETIN 106, XJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 

Our data show that the immunity follbwing abortion is not the 
immunity ordinarily following recovery from an acute contagious 
malady, but on the contrary is what we may designate age immunity. 
The animal has with age acqmred a higher degi'ee of resistance to 
abortion than she enjoyed as a heifer. 

In view of the facts thus far eUcited, it is doubly inexpedient to 
fight abortion by selUng aborters. If there is truth in the beUcf that 
an animal from a herd where abortion is virulent may introduce a 
more highly virulent strain of infection into another herd, it is evi- 
dently wrong to sell such animals. The greatest objection to the 
selling plan for the control of abortion is that it causes a serious and 
needless drain upon the herd. As already stated, the resistance to 
abortion increases with age. If an aborter will again breed, she has 
in the meantime aged one year, has acquired increased resistance, 
and is on the whole a safer breeder than the previous year. More- 
over, if properly handled at the time of aborting, as Bang early 
pointed out, the danger from reaborting may be very largely 
eliminated. 

McFadyean and Stockman and others suggest the possibility or 
probability of establishing an efficient immunity through the use of 
biological products (abortins, bacterins), but the investigations in tliis 
direction have not yet afforded definite results. Nor can we see hope 
that the plan will succeed. Apparently their hopes are predicated 
upon an alleged natural immunity following one or two abortions. 
If our data are correct, the power to control abortion by this means 
is predicated upon our ability to induce an artificial immunity in 
a chronic disease incapable itself of producing natural irmnunity. 

Sven Wall, Holth, and others have enthusiastically embraced the 
hypothesis that the disease may be controlled by isolating the infected 
animals with the aid of the agglutination, complement-fixation, or 
other laboratory tests, but a glance at their investigations intimates 
that a very large percentage of ammals would need to be isolated, a 
large proportion of herds would have to install the method, and it is 
not yet determined that success would follow. The outlook at present 
is that the isolation would prove well-nigh as great an economic 
burden as the malady. 

Brauer suggested many years ago the hypodermic administration 
of carbolic acid as a preventive for abortion, and many have had 
apparently good results, but there seems to be no great reason for 
accepting the alleged results as more than apparent. 

Much has been claimed for vaginal disinfection of pregnant animals, 
but this plan has not been supported by conclusive evidence. 

Our conclusion that the infection enters the uterine cavity through 
the cervical canal prior to or very soon after conception leads us to 
advise the thorough douching of the vagina for a time before and 



GRANULAE VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 53 

immediately following breeding. It is recommended to use for this 
purpose warm, feebly disinfecting solutions, such as 0.5 per cent 
bacterol, lysol, cresol compound, or other soapy coal-tar disinfectant. 
The soapy character tends better to dissolve the mucus in the vagina 
and cleanse the membrane more efficiently. More recently we have 
been using 0.25 or 0.5 per cent Lugol's solution, with apparently most 
excellent results. The solution should be introduced into the vagina 
at about the nonnal body temperature, 100° to 105° F. The vagina 
should be filled, in order that it may be fully dilated, the folds of 
mucosa obhterated, and the solution brought into contact with every 
part. It is best introduced by means of a gravity apparatus in the 
form of a 5-gallon vessel for medium or large herds, armed with a 
stopcock at the bottom, to which is attached a pure gum horse stom- 
ach tube. The vessel should then be suspended upon a manure or 
food track, or upon a special wire track by means of a pulley, so that 
it may be easily moved along behind the row of cows. 

The horse stomach tube is introduced through the vulva into the 
vagina, and the fluid is allowed to enter the vagina by gravity. 

The bull is to be handled in the same manner. Tlio solution should 
be applied before and after each service by a similar, though smaller, 
gravity apparatus with a pure gum horse catheter for introduction 
into the sheath. While the fluid is passing into the sheath, the opera- 
tor should prevent its escape by pressure upon the outlet until every 
part is well dilated and all mucous folds obhterated, so that the solu- 
tion comes into contact with every portion of the mucous membrane. 

The cleansing and disinfection of the genital organs of dairy cows 
should have a more important place in dairying than the prevention 
of abortion and sterihty alone. Clean milk is well-nigh impossible 
from cows having vulvo-vaginal discharges which soil the tail, but- 
tocks, and thighs. With the wide distribution of the granular vene- 
real disease, as we have pointed out, a vulvar discharge from young 
cows is the rule, and so uniform a rule that it is commonly regarded as 
normal, although such discharges are not usually observed in other 
domestic animals. We accordingly hold that the disinfection of the 
vaginae of dairy cows at intervals of three or four days should be made 
a rule of practice by dairymen who desire to be known as producing 
clean milk, while our experience has amply convinced us that the 
plan is economically sound in keeping the cows in better health. 

Immediately after cows have calved or aborted, if there be retained 
placenta or uterine discharge, the uterine cavity should be at once 
carefully disinfected and the disinfection repeated once or twice daily 
so long as the cervical canal is freely open, in order to overcome the 
infection present and thereby do all possible to prevent sterihty and 
to avoid abortion during the next pregnancy. 



54 BULLETIN 10«, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICXJLTUKE. 

The proposed method of handling abortion and sterility is merely 
repressive, however important. We do not hope thereby to eliminate 
either abortion or the granular venereal disease from the herd, but 
only that we shall bo able, at a justifiable cost, to reduce the losses 
from abortion and sterility. Accepting the infections of the genital 
tract as permanent, any measures against them should have a sinailar 
continuity and be accepted as one of the elements in the operation 
of dair3ang. 

THE PRODUCTION OF SOUND HERDS. 

Abortion and sterility are not alone in reducing the efiiciency in 
dairying and breeding herds. In many herds similar losses occur 
from calf scoms and pneumonia and from tuberculosis. These three 
great dairy scourges cause their chief devastation in the young. 
Scorn's and pneumonia destroy most of their victims -during the first 
few weeks after birth. Abortion and sterility play their greatest havoc 
among cows and heifers 2 to 4 years old. Tuberculosis largely has 
its origin through the food of the calf, or the heifer becomes affected 
during her first years in the dairy. If cattle breeding and dairying 
are to be placed upon a more secme basis, it is first of all essential to 
maintain in health the new-born calves. 

Calf scours and pneumonia have been sufficiently investigated that 
their nature is well enough known to undertake prevention with a 
reasonable measure of confidence. A method has been pointed out 
and its feasibility demonstrated whereby calves may be raised free 
from tuberculosis in spite of tuberculous parents. The measures 
advisable for the repression and prevention of these can be made to 
answer in large measure for the control of abortion and sterility, and 
any needed additions to the sanitary measures for the control of 
abortion would add to the efficiency of the measures relating to the 
other maladies. 

The maternity and calf stables of our larger dairies and more 
important breeding herds constitute the fundamental source of the 
chief losses amongst dairy cattle. It is a notable fact that in many 
of our highest class, or highest classed, dairies the dairy stables are 
extravagantly well built, while the maternity and calf barns are 
disgraceful old ramshackles, more worthy of being called pest houses. 
The control of dairy plagues must begin and be most exact ^vith the 
newborn calf when it is most vulnerable to disease, and in large 
dairy and breeding establishments the proper handling of the cow 
at the time of parturition and the care of the newborn calf should 
have first place in the entire scheme. 

The infections causing calf scours and pneumonia, abortion and 
sterility, and tubercidosis are so thoroughly disseminated that for 
practical purposes, with some exceptions in relation to tuberculosis. 



GEANULAE VENEEEAL DISEASE AND ABOEIION IN CATTLE. 55 

all COWS should be regarded as suspicious and all newborn calves 
treated as being in danger of exposure to the infection of any or all 
of these dairy plagues. 

While the prospect for preventing abortion (and sterility) appears 
quite feasible, in the present state of our knowledge we can lay down 
no reliable means for wholly avoichng the infection of the granular 
venereal disease. If we accept the hypothesis of any recorded investi- 
gator or group of investigators, we have as yet no more promising 
method of getting a herd free from abortion than by taking the new- 
born calf and guarthng it perpetually. The plan can at most be criti- 
cized only as beginning too early, because the fight against abortion 
might be delayed for economic reasons until the animal has reached the 
age of 6 to 12 months, when, according to Bang, McFadyean and 
Stockman, and others, they may take the bacilli in their food, and the 
infection lie in wait until pregnancy affords fuel for a conflagration. 
In the meantime the isolation is needed because of scours and pneu- 
monia and tuberculosis, and while these two are being evaded the 
third may be simultaneously parried. The growing of sound calves 
in relation to the three scourges named appeals to us as the most 
interesting and ui^ent problem before the cattle breeder. In order 
to accomplish results radical changes in the handling of newborn 
calves must be established. Maternity and calf buUchngs must 
meet fully all demands for light, air, and temperature, and to these 
must be added practicability of thorough cleansing. 

A PLAN FOR BREEDING SOUND ANIMALS. 

We would outline the following plan for the breeders of pedigreed 
and valuable dairy cattle with a view to the production of cleaner 
and more efficient herds. 

1. The construction or arrangement of independent maternity and 
calf nursery stables embodying all modern requirements for ventila- 
tion, light, heat, convenience for disinfection, and ample facilities 
for the exclusion of fUes. The stables should provide sufficient 
individual stalls for all calving cows and individual stalls for calves 
untd at least tlu-ee months old. 

2. A cow which is about to calve should be well cleaned and her 
posterior parts disinfected, after which she should be placed in a clean 
stall some days prior to expected parturition. Pending parturition 
the stall should be kept scrupulously clean and well disinfected. The 
tail, vulva, buttocks, and udder should be disinfected twice daily. 
In order to avoid the danger of infection to the calf while passing 
through the vagina of the cow during birth either by the infection of 
wliite scours, the gi-anular venereal flisease, or other malady, the 
vagina should be irrigated daily vdth a mild chsinfectant such as 0.5 
per cent Lugol's solution. Such attention to the vagina also tends 



56 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 

to carry away any infections within the vagina which immediately 
after the opening of the cervical canal of the uterus at the time of 
calving may otherwise drop into the uterine cavity and there establish 
disease. 

3. When the calf is born it should be received upon a clean anti- 
septic sheet and at once carried to a clean calf stall and rubbed dry. 
If it is desired to allow the calf to remain temporarily with the cow, 
great care should be taken to see that the bedding is kept clean. 

After the calf has been dried, if not earlier, the stump of the navel 
cord should be disinfected. It should not be ligated. Prepare a 
warm 1 to 1,000 solution of corrosive sublimate, fill a goblet or cup 
with it, and, having the calf held in a standing position, press the 
vessel against the floor of the belly so that the stump of the navel 
cord is submerged in the disinfecting fluid. Retain it in this position 
for at least 10 minutes. Immediately afterwards dust the stump of 
the cord over liberally with a disinfecting desiccating powder, as 
alum and camphor, and repeat every 30 minutes until the stump is 
dry. 

The body openings (mouth, nostrils, vulva of heifer, and sheath of 
bull calf) should be disinfected with a 0.5 per cent Lugol's solution. 

4. Prior to drawing milk from the dam or other cow for feeding 
the calf, or permitting the calf to suck, the udder and adjacent parts 
of the cow should be thoroughly disinfected. The milk should be 
drawn in a sterile vessel under the strictest cleanliness. If the milk 
is from a cow not known to be free from tuberculosis, it should be 
steriUzed before feeding. Individual feeding vessels should be used 
and regularly sterihzed. 

Wlien calves have reached 3 months of age, it may usually be 
fairly determined if they are free from disease, in which case they 
may be handled in groups. These, however, should be kept as small 
as economically practicable imtil the heifers have calved and are 
ready for the dairy. Even then the larger the number of animals in 
one stable the greater the risk of infection and the moi-e destructive 
will it be if it gains entrance. 

5. Wlien breeding time for the heifer grown under the foregoing 
conditions is approaching, we would advise that her vagina be 
douched once daily for at least three weeks before breeding, at first 
with a 0.5 per cent Lugol's solution, and thereafter each second day 
with a 0.25 per cent solution. The douching .should extend over at 
least one estrual period, or 21 days prior to breeding, and followed 
for an equal time after breeding, or until it is determined she is 
pregnant. The bull should preferably have been grown in the same 
manner as the heifers he is to serve and his genitals douched in a 
similar way. 



GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 57 
CONCLUSIONS. 

1. Abortion in cattle is essentially always the result of a chronic 
infection within the utero-chorionic space, revealing itself post- 
mortem by the presence of the so-called abortion exudate, which 
contains generally, if not always, the abortion bacilli. 

2. The granular venereal disease of cattle is, so far as known, 
imiversally distributed. From cUnical observation it has a vital 
relation to contagious abortion. It is incurable in the present state 
of our knowledge, but may be greatly decreased in virulence. 

3. Contagious abortion of cattle has attained an essentially uni- 
versal distribution, frequently present merely as an imrecognized 
infection of the genital organs, not inducing actual abortion but 
causing premature birth, retained afterbirth, and sterihty. 

4. The ordinary if not sole avenue of the entrance of the infection 
of contagious abortion is the genital canal, and the invasion antedates 
the sealing of the uterus, which ordinarily occurs within 30 days after 

. conception. 

5. When conception has occurred and the cervical canal has been 
sealed, the fate of the fetus is settled. If a sufficiently virulent and 
voluminous infection exists in the utero-chorionic space, abortion 
may result; if such infection does not exist within the sealed utero- 
chorionic space when the formation of the seal is completed, it will 
not enter thereafter during pregnancy. 

6. In the present state of our knowledge httle or nothing can be 
done to prevent abortion once the pregnant uterus is sealed and the 
infection of contagious abortion exists within the hermetically sealed 
cavity. 

7. By systematic disinfection of the genitaUa immediately follow- 
ing abortion or premature birth, and also in retained afterbirth and 
kindred infections of the uterus, the affected animals may be largely 
guarded against future sterility and abortion. It is even more im- 
portant that the vaginje of heifers, whether virgin or previously bred, 
and cows shall be systematically disinfected for a period before and 
after breeding, until conception is assured. 

8. It is equally important that the genital organs of breeding bulls 
be kept clean by regular disinfection, including washing immediately 
prior to and after service. 

9. Most important of all, breeders of valuable cattle should insti- 
tute definite, energetic, and permanent efforts to guard new-born 
calves simultaneously against the three great dairy scourges — calf 
scours and pneumonia, abortion and sterihty, and tuberculosis. 



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